child marriage

The government says the law on banning child marriage is consistent with international conventions on the rights of women and children.

LFL says the government is bound by its obligations under various international treaties and cannot allow individual states to have the final say in the matter.

The legal age for marriage in Iraq is 18 but can be lowered to 15 in cases of parental or judicial consent.

Child marriage has been practised in Afghanistan for centuries, but war and climate change-related poverty have driven many families to resort to striking deals earlier and earlier in girls' lives.

Activists welcome the change over the years but say more groundwork is needed to dislodge long-held social norms.

Some religious authorities do not see child marriage as sensitive or worth discussing.

'I went through hell,' says 19-year-old who was married at 12 and rejected by her husband at 16 before being disfigured in an acid attack.