The law is going to a second vote by the country's government, but it has opposition from youth activist groups and from 215 women parliamentary members.

The new law would allow men to marry children as young as nine years old and has been branded a "catastrophe for women" by activists who are fighting to stop it.

Iraq is poised to pass a new law that would lower the legal age of consent from 18 to nine, allowing men to marry young girls, according to a new report. The Shia conservative groups that dominate Iraq’s parliament have proposed an amendment to the country’s “personal status law” that could see a Taliban-style rollback of all women’s rights.

Rights activists say the amendment would roll back women's rights and increase underage marriages in the country.