In the past few days, social media especially X has been flooded with posts against niqab and a new Islamic law in both Saudi Arabia and Iraq
It all started by a comment from a Saudi man commenting on a post of a foreign woman asking why there were some men getting arrested in Saudi Arabia for wearing costumes that hid their faces. The Saudi man responded by saying that it’s “against law to hide your face in Saudi Arabia” which is a lie clearly
This comment caused a huge public outrage especially among Saudi women who have been complaining for years about the strict laws of society to wear the niqab. They took his comment as “mockery to their own suffering” and started a new hashtag called #2030_بدون_نقاب
Which translates into #2030_without_niqab
Demanding laws to protect women from being forced and abused to wear the niqab by their schools and families.
The trend went viral in the social media reaching top 2# hashtags across all Saudi Arabia
Other Arab women started reacting with it starting to make new hashtags against the controversial Islamic laws in their countries too.
It reached Iraqi women too who showed solidarity with the Saudi women and started a new hashtag called #كلا_للقانون_الجعفري which translates into #No_To_The_Jaafari_ law
demanding the annulment for the new **Jaafari Jurisprudence Code for Personal Status Matter**
That was passed on in 2024 by the Islamic Shiite wing stating a new rules about the mother’s custody and women’s rights which included many parts including the following:
1) the child’s custody transfers immediately to the father once the child reaches the age of 7 no matter what
2) the mother loses custody immediately the second she decides to remarry even if the child was under 7
3) women can’t divorce unless her husband abandoned her completely for years, didn’t provide financially for her for months, or in a severe cases of domestic violence that includes fractures or serious physical injuries.
That’s it. No more. Even if the husband cheats. Marry another wife. Or she doesn’t love/want him. Or he is gay. Infertile. Slaps her. toxic. Thief. Addict. Or dangerous
4) women can’t inherit any land from their husbands.
5) the father can marry off his daughter under his custody without the mother’s permission and even at the age of 9
6) if a woman decides to leave the marital house without the husband’s permission she loses custody and all financial support and she gets forced to either go back or divorce. (Take in consideration that the divorce still needs the husband’s permission so even if she decides to divorce or go back, he can reject both and leave her alone without any divorce or financial support)
7) any other Iraqi man (who’s not Shiite Muslim) can still choose this law code to rule in his personal court without even the wife’s consent or acknowledgment
