One child in a safe house, thousands of children in marriages that violate child rights, and the need to change the law
The news of the marriage of an 11-year-old Elamite girl to a man four times her age, whose seventh child was two years older than the girl, once again sparked public outcry against the law's support for child marriage.
Although this child was able to enjoy the protection of the law because his marriage took place without obtaining the court's permission as stipulated in the civil law, and due to the wave of public protest, he was able to be transferred to a welfare safe house with the intervention of the Ilam prosecutor, thousands of other children who get married every day for various reasons face serious harm and injuries in similar circumstances due to this phenomenon.
Eradicating the phenomenon of child marriage requires multidimensional planning in the cultural, social, and educational fields, but removing the legality of this practice is the government's first and most immediate commitment to protecting children from physical, sexual, and psychological violence and harm resulting from childhood marriage.
The Imam Ali Student Association, a non-governmental organization that works to support vulnerable women and children across the country and was the first to publish the news of the marriage of an 11-year-old girl with the pseudonym Raha, wrote on its Twitter page about the prevalence of this phenomenon and the need to change the law: “Raha was freed from slavery under a law that has no guarantee of prohibiting or punishing child marriage. According to statistics from 2016 alone, 1,289 cases of marriages of girls under the age of 14 to men over the age of 30 were recorded. 112 of them were in similar circumstances to Raha; that is, they married men over the age of 40. In 6 cases, the man was over the age of 60! Raha got the chance to have her story heard by the people of her land. What will happen to other children who are trafficked away from public view? …”
The news of the marriage of an 11-year-old girl from Elam, who was introduced from the very beginning with the pseudonym "Raha", to a man of about 50 years old, was first published on February 9, 2018 by the Imam Ali Student Association. According to Zahra Kahram, an active member of the organization, they discovered this marriage by chance while implementing a medical and psychological examination project for women from deprived areas in a village in the Halilan region of Ilam province: "After filling out the identification form for local women, we discovered this marriage. The marriage of a man who has seven children from his first wife. Raha has not yet reached puberty and has had sex with this man every night and has suffered a lot of physical and mental injuries and has repeatedly cried. Through the follow-up of the Imam Ali Association and the progress of this marriage from the beginning, we learned that Raha was somehow forced to marry her husband 6 months ago due to financial poverty and the fact that the family received only 15 million tomans."
Follow-up revealed that this marriage took place without observing the legal formalities stipulated in the note to Article 1041 of the Civil Code, which defers the marriage of girls under 13 years of age and boys under 15 years of age to the request of a guardian and the permission of the court, taking into account expediency.
On the other hand, Article 50 of the Family Protection Law of 1392 stipulates a sixth-degree prison sentence for a man who marries without such permission, as well as for the father or paternal grandfather, mother, legal guardian, or any person who was responsible for the girl's care and who directly played a role in such a marriage. However, according to the same article, if it is proven that the sexual intercourse resulted in the girl's "permanent disability or illness" or her death, the man will be sentenced to fifth- and fourth-degree prison sentences, respectively, in addition to paying blood money.
Based on this article and in response to the follow-up of the Imam Ali Society and the Welfare Organization, a warrant was issued to revoke Raha's guardianship and she was transferred to a welfare safe house. Her father and the man who married her were also prosecuted for their participation in this illegal marriage. Finally, on February 12, Mizan News Agency reported the arrest of a man who had married an 11-year-old girl.
Increasing condemnation of child marriage
The publication of the horrific story of the 11-year-old Elami girl intensified protests against the lack of a minimum age limit for marriage in Iranian law. Among them, Mohammad Shariatmadari, the Minister of Welfare, reacted to the issue for the first time, and some members of parliament, joining the social movement opposing child marriage, spoke openly about the harms caused by it.
A day after this news was published, Ayatollah Asadollah Bayat-Zanjani, one of the religious authorities, explicitly declared child marriage forbidden, saying: "Marriage with children is unjust, and because it is unjust, it is not legitimate."
Zahra Saei, a member of the Youth Faction and the Social Commission of the Parliament, also considered the marriage of girls under the age of 13 to be an injustice and added: "According to the studies we conduct, we see that the divorce rate is high among groups that married early, and of course the harm caused by it is also greater... Considering the physiology of girls' bodies, we see that they are physically different from the past and are weaker. Society has imposed certain requirements on families. Today, the mother of the family must be educated and aware in order to be able to raise children well. In this process, the man and woman must have certain physical and mental conditions in order to form a successful family. Girls and boys who marry at a young age have an incomplete view, outlook, and understanding of the environment. Jurisprudence has not prohibited marriage and has not set a specific age, but when we examine it, we see that the fruit of marriage is the formation of a successful family. We must see at what age is marriage good, which leads to the completion and growth of men and women."
A lawyer named Ali Mojtahedzadeh, in response to the prosecutor's involvement in the issue of Raha's marriage, wrote on his Twitter page: "The #PublicProsecutor's involvement in the issue of child marriage in Ilam, despite the legal vacuum regarding such incidents, shows that the sensitivity and concern of society regarding these issues has been taken seriously despite the presence of powerful opponents..." Reza Bahrami, a journalist and political activist, also asked this question in a tweet: "Do those who oppose the #marriage_ban for #children have an answer to the tragedy of the marriage of an 11-year-old child to a 50-year-old man in #Ilam?" Hedeya Kimiai, a journalist in the field of social harms, also reacted as follows: "After the public protests against the marriage of an 11-year-old Raha to a 50-year-old man, the Ilam prosecutor said: "Based on Article 50 of the Family Protection Law, the perpetrators of this illegal act will be prosecuted." So we have a law but we do not enforce it. What is the role of the Raha who are silent and become victims and become?"
Efforts continue in parliament and government to ban marriage of children under 13 years of age
Despite the rejection of the bill to combat child marriage by the Parliament's Legal and Judicial Committee, it is still possible to consider it in the open court of the Parliament. Zahra Saei, a member of the Women's Faction of the Parliament, told Borna News Agency about the latest status of the bill: "The Women's Faction has requested the Honorable Speaker of the Parliament to put this bill on the Parliament's agenda for further consideration so that we can apply different opinions and, as a result, extract good results from it."
On the other hand, Masoumeh Ebtekar, Deputy Presidential Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, announced that a bill has been drafted in that office to remove the note to Article 1041 of the Civil Code, which allows the marriage of girls under 13 years of age and boys under 15 years of age with the permission of a guardian and the court.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
