Child marriage: 54 children under 15 married in Khodaafrin last year
The governor of Khodaafrin County in East Azerbaijan Province reported that 54 children under the age of 15 were married last year. Not long ago, the vice president for women and family affairs estimated that there were about 30,000 marriages of girls under the age of 14 per year. The physical and psychological harms resulting from child marriage inflict irreparable damage on the lives of girls, especially pregnancies under the age of 18, maternal mortality, depression, and sometimes suicide attempts, in addition to harms such as divorce, failure to attend school, and the persistence of the cycle of cultural and economic poverty.
According to the HRANA news agency, citing Mehr, Governor Khodaafrin announced 284 marriages registered in the city last year.
Stating that the spread of child marriage has become a problem in this city, he added: "54 of the marriages registered last year were involving children under the age of 15."
Not long ago, Masoumeh Ebtekar, the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, stated that “according to statistics, about 30,000 girls under the age of 14 are married each year,” adding, “The age of marriage is determined by a note at the discretion of the judge, and currently there is no minimum age for marriage. Another issue that should be considered as a means of realizing children’s rights is the adoption note, which allows a father to marry his adopted child under the conditions that the judge allows.”
In January 2019, the Iranian government agreed to the general terms of a bill to set a minimum age for marriage to combat child marriage. The bill sets the minimum age for marriage at 13 for girls and 15 for boys.
Child marriage has been on the rise in Iran in recent years, and child rights activists say the phenomenon will have a negative impact on the health of Iranian families in the future.
The high rate of child marriage before reaching intellectual and mental maturity indicates the extent of this phenomenon in Iran. The age of marriage in Iran is determined based on “sexual maturity,” while experts say that sexual maturity is only part of the dimensions of full human maturity. Growth, awareness, education, and freedom of choice are the most basic and humane conditions for forming a family.
The physical and psychological harms caused by child marriage cause irreparable damage to the lives of girls, especially pregnancies under the age of 18, maternal mortality, depression, and sometimes suicide attempts, in addition to harms such as divorce, failure to attend school, and the persistence of the cycle of cultural and economic poverty.
According to published statistics, over 95,000 divorces involving women under the age of 19 were recorded between 2011 and 2015, with approximately 5,760 of these divorces related to marriages in which the couple was under the age of 15.
Source: HRANA
