Women This Week: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Responds to Executive Orders and Threats from President Trump

Defends Mexico’s Sovereignty  

Claudia Sheinbaum, the newly elected president of Mexico, has reiterated the need to “keep calm” in the face of several executive orders and threats issued by President Donald Trump regarding trade, migration, and other issues that impact U.S.-Mexican relations. Although Sheinbaum had previously stated that Mexico would impose retaliatory tariffs if duties were placed on Mexican exports, Sheinbaum refrained from issuing her own trade threats after Trump said that he may place 25 percent tariffs on Mexican goods on February first, saying she would take it “step by step.” On the issue of immigration, Sheinbaum responded to the Trump administration’s reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy—which requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their U.S. court date—by saying that Mexico would act in a “humanitarian way.” However, she added that non-Mexican nationals would not be hosted in Mexico, as her predecessor did during the first Trump administration. She also said that financing the return of individuals back to their home country would need to be discussed with Trump and reinforced Mexico’s right to make its own decisions. “Regarding the decrees that President Donald Trump signed yesterday, I would like to say the following: The people of Mexico can be sure that we will always defend our sovereignty and our independence,” she said.  

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Requests Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders 

This week, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court (ICC)  officially requested arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders in Afghanistan under charges of gender-based persecution. The warrants, which cite article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, target supreme spiritual leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, who has been the chief justice of Afghanistan since 2021. Karim Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor, wrote in the statement that, “Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban,” adding that the  “Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia should not, and may not be used to justify the deprivation of fundamental human rights or the related commission of Rome Statute crimes.” The request will now be reviewed by a three-judge panel. Afghan women and girls have experienced severe repression since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, and most are unable to access education, employment, and are largely restricted from being seen or heard in public life.    

Iraqi Parliament Passes Law to Permit Marriage of Girls as Young as Nine  

The Iraqi parliament has enacted legislation allowing the marriage of girls as young as nine. The law revokes a ban enacted in 1959 that made the statutory minimum age for marriage eighteen, with some allowance for individuals as young as fifteen to marry with legal approval. Under the new law, religious authorities will now have the jurisdiction to decide on family affairs, including marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Shia and Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Iraq’s population. For those who practice Shia Islam, marriage is permitted for girls as young as nine, and for practitioners of Sunni Islam, the official age is fifteen. In response to the law’s passage, Sajjad Salem, an independent member of parliament, said, “The Iraqi state has never witnessed a decline and profanity that harmed Iraq’s wealth and reputation as we are witnessing today.” A member of the parliament’s legal committee claimed that there was not the legal number of members present for the vote and said that she would challenge the law’s legality in the Iraqi federal court. According to a UN survey, 28 percent of children marry by eighteen, and 7 percent by the age of fifteen in Iraq.