Child Marriage; 4 Marriages of a Girl by Age 16
A mother approached the police seeking action against her daughter, citing the 16-year-old girl’s frequenting of “places of corruption.” In describing her situation, this mother revealed that in the shadow of poverty and addiction, she has repeatedly married off her daughter to multiple men since the age of 12.
According to Hrana news agency, citing IRNA, a mother approached law enforcement seeking the arrest of her daughter for frequenting “places of corruption,” framing her request as a way to prevent the girl’s marriage.
According to this mother, a resident of Mashhad, her daughter has had three formal marriages since the age of 12 amid the family’s poverty and addiction, and now at 16 years old, she intends to marry for the fourth time.
The identity of this 16-year-old girl has been given as Nazanin.
According to the report, Nazanin’s mother said: “Due to economic conditions, we were forced to leave our city and come to Mashhad, and Nazanin’s father, after failing to find suitable work, turned to street vending and later became addicted. The economic conditions were bad, and I was forced to marry off my 12-year-old daughter and prevent her from continuing her education; although in our family this has been a common practice.
My daughter’s life did not last more than three months due to her husband’s addiction, and she divorced him. The poor financial conditions and my husband’s addiction and my efforts to manage and pay for living expenses reduced my attention to my daughter, and through a street romance, Nazanin married for the second time, but this marriage also did not last, and the divorce stamp was inscribed in her birth certificate for the second time.
She continued: “Nazanin married a married man for the third time, and after his first wife found out and pressured my daughter, she separated from her husband for the third time. Now Nazanin, at the sixteenth year of her life, after meeting a boy who frequents places of corruption in the city, wants to marry him. She is not willing to adopt the correct way of life, and most importantly, I am afraid she will take my seven-year-old daughter with her. Despite this, I intend to pull her out of this swamp, but I do not want her to be imprisoned.”
In recent years in Iran, many families have resorted to early marriage of their children to reduce their economic and financial costs.
According to statistics from the Civil Registration Organization of Iran, in autumn 2021, 11,235 marriages of children under 15 years of age were registered. On the other hand, based on government incentives, including providing facilities such as marriage loans, the number of statistics on early child marriages by families increases daily.
The physical and psychological harms resulting from marriage during childhood inflict irreparable blows on the lives of these children. Pregnancies under 18 years of age, maternal mortality, depression, suicide attempts, divorce, dropping out of school, and the persistence of cycles of cultural and economic poverty are among these harms.
Source: Hrana
