Iraq has reportedly passed a bill which included amendments that technically legalize child marriage, according to those who opposed it.

Islamic courts will now have more authority over family matters including marriage, divorce and inheritance because of the amendments, which critics have said undermine Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, AP reports. The bill will allow the courts to rule over cases according to their interpretation of Islamic law.

While the current minimum age of marriage in Iraq is 18, the new bill suggests that clerics could decide to allow child marriages in certain cases. In the Jaafari school of Islamic law, which is followed by many Shiite religious authorities in Iraq, children as young as 9 are encouraged to be married off.