Child Marriage; Annual Marriage of 30,000 Girls Under 14 in the Country
Masoumeh Ebtekar, Deputy for Women and Family Affairs of the President, in a webinar on children’s rights in Iran’s legal system, stated that “according to statistics, marriage of girls under 14 years old is reported to be around 30,000 per year,” and added “the age of marriage is restricted by a provision subject to the judge’s opinion and currently there is no minimum age for marriage. Another matter that should be considered as upholding children’s rights is the provision regarding adoption, through which the father is allowed to marry his adopted child under conditions approved by the judge”. The physical and psychological harms resulting from marriage during childhood inflict irreparable blows on girls’ lives, particularly pregnancies under 18 years of age, maternal mortality, depression, and sometimes suicide attempts, along with damages such as divorce, dropping out of school, and the persistence of cycles of cultural and economic poverty.
According to HRANA news agency citing ISNA, the Office of Women and Family Affairs of the Presidency announced marriage of girls under 14 years old at approximately 30,000 cases per year.
Masoumeh Ebtekar, Deputy for Women and Family Affairs, said: “In the law, the age of marriage is restricted by a provision subject to the judge’s opinion, but it can be said that currently there is no minimum age for marriage, and this has created problems for many children”.
Ebtekar, while announcing non-opposition to marriage for 15 or 16-year-old girls, claimed regarding solutions for further upholding children’s rights: “Another matter that should be considered as upholding children’s rights is the provision regarding adoption, through which the father is allowed to marry his adopted child under conditions approved by the judge”.
She added: “The law prohibits this marriage but its provision allows marriage, and in our view this provision needs amendment, and the office is pursuing its amendment”.
Ebtekar also, referring to reports of physical punishment of children in schools, said: “We need this law to be well explained in education and training, and government and non-governmental sector mechanisms must be continuous”.
In December 2019, the Iranian government approved the general principles of a bill to set the minimum age of marriage to combat child marriage. In this bill, the minimum age of marriage for girls is set at 13 years old and for boys at 15 years old.
Child marriage in Iran has been increasing in recent years. Child rights activists say this phenomenon will negatively affect the health of Iranian families in the future.
The high statistics of marriages of children who marry before reaching intellectual and mental maturity reflect the prevalence of this phenomenon in Iran. The age of marriage in Iran is determined based on “sexual maturity,” while according to experts, sexual maturity is only part of the dimensions of complete human maturity. Development, awareness, education, and freedom in choice are the most fundamental and humane conditions for forming a family.
The physical and psychological harms from child marriage inflict irreparable blows on girls’ lives, particularly pregnancies under 18 years of age, maternal mortality, depression, and sometimes suicide attempts, along with damages such as divorce, dropping out of school, and the persistence of cycles of cultural and economic poverty.
Based on published statistics, over 95,000 cases of divorce of women under 19 years old were registered between the years 2011-2015, of which approximately 5,760 cases of these divorces were related to marriages in which the age of both spouses was less than
Source: HRANA
