Masoumeh Ebtekar: The age gap between some child wives is 50 years
Marriage Week in Iran is underway with promotional and incentive programs, while one in two marriages ends in emotional divorce and the fate of the child marriage bill is unclear. In many cities, the marriage of girls aged 10 to 14 is common.
The Ministry of Sports and Youth has declared August 12 as “National Marriage Day” and is holding ceremonies in various provinces for a week to create a buzz and encourage young people to start a family. Sima’s “Show Network” will show films on the subject of marriage for a week. The Minister of Communications has announced that all couples who get married this week will be given free internet for a year. Many cities have said that they will not register any divorces during the week of marriage.
Festivals and promotional programs are being held this week while the law banning the marriage of girls under 13 is still pending, and "child marriage" is not exempt from the wave of marriage propaganda.
Masoumeh Ebtekar, Rouhani's deputy for women and family affairs, said in an interview with Iran Daily: "Child marriage occurs more in border and rural areas. Recently, we see that prosecutors from the judiciary are also stepping in and preventing such unconventional marriages. In some cases, the age gap reaches 50 years, and in some cases, men marry girls under 13 years old."
In the summer of 2018, the Majlis Research Center reported, citing civil registration statistics, that most underage girls were married to men who were at least 10 years older than them. The report acknowledged that in 2016, three girls aged 10 to 14 were married to men aged 70, and 138 marriages were between the ages of 25 and 29.
Marriage of older men to underage girls is considered child abuse, but child marriage is not yet criminalized in Iranian law.
Ebtekar says that marriage is not slavery and that the passage of the bill could regularize the issue of marriage: "Based on statistics from the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, divorce occurs at different ages, but this figure is much higher for those under 13 than for other ages."
A bill submitted to parliament by child rights activists and the women's parliamentary faction sets the marriage age at 18 for boys and 16 for girls. The bill has met with a deadlock in the judicial commission, all ten members of which are men.
Until 1379, the age of puberty for girls was 9 years, and in the Sixth Parliament this limit was increased to 13 years. Currently, according to Article 1041 of the Civil Code, marriage of a girl under 13 years of age is possible with the father's permission and consideration of expediency.
Marriage Week is underway in Iran, while the Director General of Civil Registration in Hamedan says that two percent of births in the province are to mothers under the age of 15. Divorce, pregnancy-related deaths, lack of sexual satisfaction, domestic violence, and inability to manage life are among the harms of having a child in a marriage.
According to statistics from the Civil Registration Organization, Khorasan Razavi, East Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Zanjan, and North Khorasan are among the provinces where children between the ages of 10 and 14 are married.
Source: DW
