Shahrbanu Amani: Iran Has 15,000 Widowed Girls Under 15 Years Old
According to one of the members of Tehran’s City Council, Iran has 15,000 widowed girls under the age of 15. Shahrbanu Amani says women “trusted,” but the result was “staying at home.” According to her, laws related to women in Iran have regressed.
Shahrbanu Amani, a member of Tehran’s City Council, on Thursday (17th of Esfand) coinciding with March 8th, International Women’s Day, during a speech titled “Living Experience Focused on Legal Barriers” said among other things: “We trusted and the result of our trust was that we became homebound. Although they should know that half of the country’s human capital are women, especially educated girls.”
Ms. Amani, who was speaking at the second “National Congress of Successful Women of Iran” at “Shahid Beheshti University,” spoke about the violation of women’s rights in Iran: “In many villages in the past, women’s identification documents were in men’s pockets and they themselves knew who to vote for. Of course, the situation is much better now.”
Shahrbanu Amani, alluding to the fact that “in the past women were called weak,” at the same time added: “and now it is still the case secretly.”
Women have a small share in Iran’s labor market compared to men. This is while in recent decades Iranian society has witnessed significant growth in higher education among women. According to a report by Iran’s Statistical Center on employment in 1394 [2015], of 22 million employed people that year, only about 3 million and 500 thousand were women.
Women are not only not at the head of any of the three branches of government, but do not even have a presence at the ministry level in the current Iranian government. The only female minister registered in the history of the Islamic Republic is Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, the health minister of Ahmad Ahmadinezhad’s second administration, who was even removed from her position due to disagreement with the president at the time. The presence of women at other management levels in Iran is also not very significant.
Regression of Laws
The reformist member of Tehran’s City Council also stated in another part of her speech today, emphasizing that Iran has regressed in terms of laws related to women: “We have laws including women’s exit with spouse’s permission, issuance of passports, concerns about child custody for women, marriage of an adoptive father with an adopted daughter in the ninth parliament. Therefore, I request that we proceed well with the path we have.”
According to Islamic Republic laws, married women cannot leave the country without their husband’s permission, issuance of a passport requires the husband’s permission and consent, and child custody priority is only with the mother until age 7. On the other hand, Iranian law gives men the right to marry their adopted daughter “by court order.”
Shahbanu Amani also said in another part of her speech that there are 15,000 widowed girls under 15 years old in Iran.
Although child marriage is considered “sexual abuse” by experts and child rights advocates, in Iran the marriage of girls from age 13 and boys from age 15 is legal. Of course, marriage of girls and boys before these ages is also considered permissible “with the permission of the guardian and with the court’s determination subject to the child’s best interests.”
Read more: Iran’s Civil Society Awaits the Realization of Children’s Rights
The marriage age in Iran is determined based on “sexual maturity,” while according to experts, sexual maturity is only considered part of complete maturity. Awareness, education, and freedom of choice are the most fundamental conditions for forming a family.
In 1393 [2014], the highest rate of child marriage in Iran was recorded. According to Iran’s Civil Registration statistics, in that year more than 40,000 children entered married life before the end of childhood.
Official statistics are of course limited only to marriages registered in official offices, and perhaps this number is much higher than official statistics due to non-registration of marriages of children without birth certificates or non-official and legal registration of polygamous marriages. Among marriages at young ages, children under 10 years old are also seen. Statistics show that between the years 1390-1394 [2011-2015], annually between 176 and 220 children under ten years old have been married in Iran.
Source: DW
