“A doll whose clothes are black from the start”

She is a child and is being married to a 22-year-old man, not secretly, but in the presence of relatives and friends. The publication of a video on Twitter in which a child becomes a wife has caused a lot of reaction. Officials are talking about annulling the marriage. 

It was in the last days of 2018 that the story of a child’s life was covered in the media; the story of an 11-year-old girl, a resident of Ilam, who was married to a 50-year-old man. According to the Imam Ali Society, the girl’s addicted family had married her to a 50-year-old man with seven children and another wife for 15 million tomans. The follow-up efforts of this NGO and the Welfare Organization paid off, and the girl, who was named “Raha,” was pulled out of this life.

The story of “Raha” becoming a wife, however, is not and will not be the last sad story in the book of child marriage in Iran. Since yesterday, the publication of a short clip on social networks has once again turned the issue of child marriage into a hot topic on the networks. In the video, which is said to be from a week ago, a little girl is sitting next to a young man, in the middle of relatives who are gathered and happy, and the girl is getting married to the young man. 

Javad Heydarian, a journalist in Iran who is one of the publishers of the film on Twitter, writes: “The film is from the “temporary engagement” ceremony of an innocent girl in the Bahmai region of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province.” In his tweet, he called on the state and provincial prosecutors to “prevent this tragedy.”

While the governor of Bahmai County, in response to this video, called it a "bitter issue" that "for some reasons he prefers not to talk about," the chief justice of the county announced the "annulment of this contract."

The video's release sparked a wave of reactions, with one Twitter user calling child marriage a "crime" and another calling on the prosecutor to "step in as public prosecutor and prevent this marriage."

Tabnak News Agency writes that the girl is 10 years old and the groom is 22 years old.

What do the statistics say?

Tayyaba Siavoshi, a member of the women's faction of the parliament, citing civil registration statistics, says that in the first six months of 2018, the marriage rate of girls (10 to 14 years old) was about 7 percent of marriages, or 17,486 cases. According to a report by the Cultural Studies Office of the Parliamentary Research Center, between 2012 and 2016, between 4.9 and 5.6 percent of marriages of girls were in the age group of 10 to 14 years. The director general of civil registration for Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad had previously reported the registration of 9 marriages under 10 years old in this province in 2017.

Of course, there are no accurate statistics on these marriages, because many of them are not registered.

What does the law say?

There is still no legal prohibition on the marriage of girls under the age of 13 in Iran.

Article 1041 (approved on 1/4/2002) states that the marriage of a girl before reaching the full age of 13 years and a boy before reaching the full age of 15 years is prohibited and is subject to the permission of a guardian, provided that it is in accordance with the expediency of the court.

The bill to amend Article 1041 of the Civil Code was rejected by the Parliament's Legal and Judicial Committee, and the bill to increase the legal age of child marriage was rejected by the Judicial Committee in the winter of 2018 due to its "lack of comprehensiveness and completeness." The committee stated that the bill had both legal and social shortcomings.

The latest status of legal efforts in this direction is that on July 14, 2019, members of the parliament agreed in a public session to refer the rejection of an urgent proposal to amend Article (1041) of the Civil Code regarding increasing the age of marriage to the Judicial Commission.

What is the reason for opposing the plan?

In an interview with Iranian media, Tayyiba Siavashi said that the reasons for opposition to the child marriage bill are “not clearly defined.” She cited “political maneuvering by some representatives opposed to the bill,” “the assumption of a kind of social vulgarity by some institutions,” and “its interpretation as un-Islamic by people who do not believe in the dynamics of jurisprudence” as some of the reasons for opposition to the bill.

By browsing Twitter, you can also get acquainted with some of the views of opponents of this plan. Zohreh Elahyan, a former member of parliament and a member of the Future Planning and Theorizing Group of the Academy of Medical Sciences, is one of the opponents of raising the marriage age. She believes that raising the marriage age, or in other words, banning child marriage, will reduce the number of marriages and, as a result, reduce childbearing.

Parvaneh Salahshouri, a member of the Omid faction and a proponent of raising the marriage age, has criticized the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting for “propaganda to hurt their critics that those in favor of the child marriage plan are against population growth.” She points to the figure of “eleven million unmarried boys and girls of marriageable age” in Iran and says: “Well, if they are looking to increase the population, think about this. Why have you resorted to children to increase the population?”

Economic and cultural poverty and child marriage

Reza Jafari, the head of the Social Emergency, who constantly deals with the cases and harms of child marriage, also said in an interview with the media inside Iran: "Child marriage is not an acceptable solution to increase marriage. Instead of age difference, it might be better to say generation difference. This is while we should consider the harm caused by this marriage, which often affects vulnerable families." And according to the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the focus of such marriages is rural, nomadic areas, and the outskirts of cities.

Azadeh Mokhtari, a social editor at Borna News Agency, believes poverty is the reason why "every day a child is sold as a bride!"

“Suicide is becoming a daily occurrence”

The release of this video has also reopened the old wounds of physical and psychological harm that child marriage brings for many users. Many victims of child marriage have not yet reached the physical, sexual, and intellectual maturity necessary for marriage.

A Twitter user who works with children in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad provinces writes about the suicides of rural women in this deprived region of Iran; about the suicides of 14-year-old girls and “about the suicides that are becoming daily.” In listing the factors behind women’s suicides, this civil activist points to several factors, including women’s illiteracy and low education, a highly patriarchal system, and material poverty; factors that, it can be said, include the low age of marriage.

Suicide is one of the bitter endings that awaits some victims of child marriage. Many experts warn of addiction, running away from home, and suicide as the most important dangers that threaten these children after marriage. Experts say in an interview with local media: “Most of these children face problems in their marital life and, since they have no way to return home, they turn to suicide or run away from home.”

Karbi writes: "The first thing that comes to mind is remembering women who have repeatedly attempted suicide in childhood, which is why they are forced into marriage or early pregnancies and domestic violence, and addicted women who, when asked what made them addicted, have one thing in common: 'I got married early, my partner was an addict, he made me addicted too.'"

Although many child marriages are not registered in Iran, and although cultural work and education are needed to remove the stigma of child marriage and to eliminate false traditions in some regions of Iran, many children's and women's rights activists believe that approving an amendment to increase the legal age of marriage could prevent many child marriages.

Immediately after the video was released, Masoumeh Ebtekar wrote a comment on Twitter to the video publisher, requesting "more detailed information" for investigation.

The publisher of the child marriage video says: "The issue is on the serious agenda of government and judicial institutions, and Ms. Ebtekar, the Deputy Minister of Women Affairs, and the President's family were also following up on it themselves, and we provided them with information." 

In the final moments of preparing this report, Tabnak wrote: “Ali Saeedi, the head of the Bahmai County Justice Department, announced the annulment of the temporary marriage of a 10-year-old girl to a 22-year-old boy in this county.” The official, announcing the annulment of this marriage, said: “According to tribal and tribal customs and local traditions prevalent in Bahmai County, the girl has been named after the boy so that after 6 years, when the girl reaches the legal age to marry, they can get married.”

Perhaps with follow-up, cultural work, economic growth, and the enactment of necessary laws, the day will come when "Fatima" (as this little girl is called in the film) will be the last victim of this false tradition; a tradition that kills the body and soul of children in the early years of life.

Source: DW