Church News
By Georgena Habbaba.
The issue of Iraqi children being legally registered as Muslim when one of their parents converts to Islam has returned to public attention after an Iraqi woman won a final court ruling allowing her official religious identity to be restored to Christian in government records.
The case was announced by ADF International, an organization that advocates for religious freedom.
According to the organization, Iraq’s Court of Cassation issued a final ruling allowing the woman’s religious classification in the government database to be changed back to “Christian,” reflecting the faith she practices after experiencing the consequences of the law.
Several Iraqi laws concerning religious identity have raised questions in light of Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution, which guarantees religious rights and freedom of belief and religious practice for all individuals, including Christians, Yazidis, and Mandaeans.
Earlier laws, including the Population Registration Laws No. 59 of 1955 and No. 54 of 1927, allowed individuals to change their religion. Later legislation took a different approach. The Civil Status Laws No. 189 of 1964 and No. 65 of 1972 allowed only non-Muslims to change their religion, an approach that continued in later laws. The legislation also states that minor children are registered as Muslim if one of their parents converts to Islam.
To better understand the issue, its legal and social consequences, and possible ways to address it, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, spoke with Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, a member of the Iraqi Parliament and head of the Christian Suyana Parliamentary Bloc.
Oghanna explained that the case recently reported in the media began with a lawsuit filed before the Personal Status Court in the Hamdaniya district. The ruling was later reviewed by higher courts before a final decision was reached.
The history of the ‘right to return’
Oghanna spoke about the difficulties faced by children who were registered as Muslim after one of their parents converted to Islam.
He explained that from the adoption of Civil Status Law No. 65 of 1972 until the 1990s, Iraqi courts allowed a child whose official religion had been changed because of a parent’s conversion to return to his or her original religion after reaching legal adulthood.
He cited Presidential Office Letter No. T/9/33963, dated Sept. 25, 1988, which explicitly recognized the right to return to one’s original religion within one year of reaching legal adulthood.
Oghanna said the situation changed during the 1990s, during what became known as the “Faith Campaign.”
“At that time, a judge sent a letter to former President Saddam Hussein arguing that the right to return amounted to ‘apostasy from Islam,’” Oghanna said. “A directive was subsequently issued prohibiting it.”
He added that the rights continued to be applied in similar cases in the Kurdistan Region from 1992 until 2003.
The legal situation after 2003
After 2003, when Iraq’s judicial system was reunified, people seeking to return to their original religion faced further difficulties because courts did not always take the same approach to such cases, Oghanna explained.
The situation remained complicated until 2020, when Judge Ahmed Jassab al Saadi called for these cases to be reconsidered without applying Islamic law provisions to them.
He based his position on Iraq’s commitments under international agreements, particularly the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
“This created a more positive approach in the courts, allowing a person who reaches the age of 18 to return to his or her original religion within one year,” Oghanna said.
What challenges remain?
Oghanna warned that the one-year deadline remains a major challenge for people who want to restore their original religious identity.
He said the period may be too short for someone to understand the legal process and file a case to correct his or her official records — therefore he called for a longer period and for the law to be applied consistently in such cases.
Oghanna said his parliamentary bloc is working with the government and the judiciary on several key issues. These include addressing the registration of children as Muslim when one parent converts to Islam and guaranteeing their right to return to their original religion after reaching adulthood without a specific time limit.
The bloc is also seeking to amend Article 26, Section 2, of Iraq’s National Identity Card Law, which states that minor children follow the religion of a parent who converts to Islam.
Establishing legal precedents
Oghanna stressed that changing the law should be accompanied by efforts within the judicial system to protect the right of individuals to return to their original religion and to safeguard freedom of religion and belief, in accordance with Iraq’s constitution and international commitments.
He also emphasized the importance of documenting previous court decisions that supported this right so they can be used as legal precedents in future cases.
