The General Secretariat of the Central Library organized a symposium entitled (Marriage and its ceremonies in the pre-Christian and pre-Islamic eras). The symposium aimed to introduce the marriage system in the ancient history of Iraq, the most important decrees followed in that historical era, and women’s financial rights, in addition to the types of marriage among Arabs before Islam. The symposium, in which Dr. Maha Jawad Nassar from the Central Library lectured, reviewed the concept of marriage and the ceremonies related to it in terms of the engagement, the marriage contract, the failures accompanying the engagement, the financial rights of the wife, such as the dowry in cash or in kind, the (irrevocable) gift of the father to his daughter, the (gift) the husband’s gift to his wife, and the conditions of polygamy. And imposing taxes on divorce to reduce it in order to preserve the family. All of these details are within the old Iraqi law.

Dr. Aqeel Yousef Al-Sultan from the Open Educational College also touched on the types of marriage among Arabs before Islam (purchase marriage, girlfriend marriage, marriage by inheritance, stranger, enslavement, and subjugation). The symposium concluded with a comparison between the pre-Islamic era and the Islamic era.