Application of Islamic law by country upon "authoritative Islamic sources and authentic fatwa". Book 2 of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran is entirely devoted to hudud punishments. Iranian application of sharia has been seen by scholars as highly flexible and directly contradicting traditional interpretations of the sharia. Article 1 of Civil Code identifies Islamic law as a main source of legislation. The 1958 Code, made polygamy extremely difficult, granted child custody to the mother in case of divorce, prohibited repudiation and marriage under the age of 16. In 1995, Iraq introduced Sharia punishment for certain types of criminal offenses. Iraq's legal system is based on
Sharia whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, women's rights and banking. The word "sharīʿah" is used by Arabic-speaking peoples of the Middle East to designate a prophetic religion in its totality. For example, "sharīʿat Mūsā" means law or religion of Moses and "sharīʿatu-nā" can mean "our religion" in reference to any monotheistic faith. Within Islamic discourse, "šarīʿah" refers to religious regulations governing the lives of Muslims. For many Muslims, the word merely means "justice," and they will consider any law that promotes justice and social welfare to conform to sharia. Jan Michiel Otto