In Iraq, your faith or religion isn’t decided by you.
It’s dictated by the state.
Maryam was raised in a Christian household. But when her mother separated from her father and remarried a Muslim man, Iraqi law automatically converted Maryam and her sisters to Islam in the state's official records.
As a minor, she had no say in this decision. The government simply reassigned her faith.
Correcting the record
Once Maryam reached the age of legal majority (18), she decided to take action.
In January 2025, she filed a legal claim asking the government to correct her official religious status to reflect her actual faith: Christianity.
In May 2026, a lower court ruled in her favour.
Now, Iraq's Court of Cassation - the country's highest court for civil, criminal, and family matters - has affirmed that ruling, ordering the correction of Maryam's religious classification in the state's database.
Maryam's two younger sisters are still officially registered as Muslim. Similar legal battles will need to be fought for each of them once they reach 18.
Why state-assigned religion matters
This isn’t just happening in Iraq.
Across the Middle East and Asia, governments record citizens' religion in official databases or on ID documents, often without consent, and make it extremely difficult to change.
The consequences can be severe: mandatory enrollment of children in religious education programs not of their faith, barriers to marriage, including being unable to marry someone of their own faith in a church if they are officially registered as Muslim, automatic assignment of children’s religion based on parental records, inheritance complications, family law conflicts, and exposure of non-Muslims to Sharia court jurisdiction.
Some parents have even had to leave their names off their children's birth certificates just to stop an incorrect religious designation from being passed down.
A person's faith becomes a fixed, state-certified label, regardless of what they believe.
ADF International’s support of Maryam
Kelsey Zorzi, ADF’s Senior Counsel and Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom, who supported Maryam's case, has said:
“We commend Iraq’s Court of Cassation for affirming this ruling and granting Maryam the freedom to have her Christian faith accurately reflected in her state-issued documents. Christians and other religious minorities across Iraq and the broader Middle East suffer real harm when governments assign them a religion that is not their own.
In a region where marriage, inheritance, burial, and education are governed differently according to one’s religion, it is essential that individuals—not states—retain the right to choose their own faith.”
This ruling sets a persuasive precedent for the many other Christians in Iraq facing the same legal and personal consequences of state-assigned religion.
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