Girls put at risk from Iraq to Afghanistan as rights are removed

Rights groups say the new amendment would "allow marriage for girls as young as 9, undermine the principle of equality under Iraqi law, and remove protections for women regarding divorce and inheritance". A significant number of girls would then be at risk of forced marriage at a much younger age.

According to Human Rights Watch: "Child marriage puts girls at increased risk of sexual and physical violence, adverse physical and mental health consequences, and being denied access to education and employment."

It added that the Iraqi amendment would be "devastating" if enacted. It passed its first reading earlier this month.

Supposedly freer

The ruling systems in both Iraq and Afghanistan are relatively new, following a period of US military occupation. The country's leaders are supposed to exemplify the "liberation". Would such liberation not be expected to bring prosperity and benefit all?

Decades before Artificial Intelligence (AI), Spanish painter Pablo Picasso once said computers were useless because "they can only give you answers". The real challenge lies in finding the right questions. Some questions are difficult.

What is better, the occupied country within which citizens enjoy rights and freedoms, or the truly independent country in which their rights and freedoms are violated in the name of religion?

Must we choose between individual freedom and political freedom? Must we trade the right to educate our daughters for the right to vote?

It is disconcerting and depressing how often those who take power after a popular struggle then deprive us of the right to education and the right to vote.

Still, the answers are not straightforward. We must avoid oversimplifying the complexities and reject false dichotomies.

Replacing external occupation with internal oppression is not true liberation, nor is substituting a leader's dictatorship with the tyranny of sects and clerics a form of democracy.

The key question is how do we move to a just national state that guarantees the rights of all, while encompassing both individual and political freedoms? This is the crux of the matter, and it demands our collective intellectual pursuit.