Iraq’s parliament passed three divisive bills on Tuesday, including amendments to the country’s personal status law that opponents say would effectively legalize child marriage.

The amendments give Islamic courts greater jurisdiction over family matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Activists argue that this undermines Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and established safeguards for women.

Iraqi law currently sets 18 as the minimum age for marriage in most cases.

The changes adopted on Tuesday would allow clerics to rule according to their interpretation of Islamic law, which some interpret to allow girls to marry in their early teens – or as young as nine according to the Jaafari school of Islamic law followed by many of Iraq’s Shiite religious authorities.

Proponents of the changes, championed primarily by conservative Shiite lawmakers, defend them as a means of aligning the law with Islamic principles and reducing Western influence on Iraqi culture.

Parliament also passed a blanket amnesty bill that is seen to benefit Sunni detainees and is also seen as giving a pass to people involved in corruption and embezzlement. The House also passed a land restitution bill aimed at addressing Kurdish territorial claims.

‘Disastrous effects’ on the rights of women, girls: activists

Intisar al-Mayali, a human rights activist and member of the Iraqi Women’s League, said the adoption of changes to the civil status law “will have disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls, by marrying girls off at an early age, which violates their right to live as children and will disrupt the divorce, custody and inheritance protection mechanisms for women.”

The session ended in chaos and accusations of procedural violations.

“Half of the deputies present at the session did not vote, which destroyed the legal quorum,” said a parliamentary official who wished to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to comment publicly. He said that some MPs protested loudly, while others climbed onto the rostrum.

After the session, many MPs complained about the voting process, according to which all three controversial laws — each supported by different blocs — were voted on together.

“As for the citizenship law, we strongly support it and there was no problem with it,” said Raid al Maliki, an independent lawmaker.

The changes could lead to a legal challenge

“But it’s combined with other bills that have to be voted on together … and that could lead to a legal challenge in Federal Court.”

In a statement, Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani praised the adoption of the law as “an important step in the process of strengthening justice and organizing the daily life of citizens.”

Also on Tuesday, at least three officers, including the national security chief of al-Tarmiyah district north of Baghdad, were killed and four wounded in an explosion at an ammunition depot, a security official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said the explosion occurred as joint forces of the Iraqi army and national security services conducted an operation following intelligence reports of Islamic State group activity and a munitions cache in the area.