Ministry of Youth: Child Marriage Has Quadrupled in Some Parts of Iran
The Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned about a four-fold increase in child marriages and attributed it to increased marriage loans. No age restrictions have been applied for those availing marriage facilities, opening the door for child exploitation.
A senior official at the Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned about a four-fold increase in child marriages in Iran, attributing it to increased marriage loans. The senior official does not consider marriage facilities a step forward in promoting marriage in the country. Meanwhile, the institution providing marriage facilities has not implemented age restrictions for loan recipients, and according to experts, has opened the door for child exploitation.
Mohammad Mahdi Tandguyvan, Deputy for Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Sports and Youth of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has reported a four-fold increase in child marriages in Iran following the increase in marriage loans.
According to Tandguyvan, poor parents in deprived areas who sometimes suffer from cultural poverty have begun to “trade” their underage children following the increase in marriage loans.
The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports on Tuesday, December 10, expressed his dissatisfaction with the increased marriage loans and their repayment conditions in an interview with ISNA, adding that this measure not only failed to increase marriage rates but has created conditions for social harms to flourish.
Tandguyvan warned of misuse of marriage facilities and said: “Statistics show that following the increase in marriage loans, child marriage has also increased sharply in some areas, with at least a four-fold increase in some parts of the country compared to last year [1397].”
Based on information contained in the “Marriage Interest-Free Loan Facilities” system of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, each bride and groom receive 30 million tomans in marriage facilities after completing registration. Each couple must pay approximately 1.1 million tomans monthly in installments to repay this loan, a figure that according to Mohammad Mahdi Tandguyvan exceeds the financial capacity of many young people.
Age Restrictions for Marriage Loans
The question that arises here is whether the law has considered a mechanism to protect children in deprived areas, and whether age restrictions are applied for those availing interest-free marriage loan facilities.
Checking the Central Bank system in the “Frequently Asked Questions” section shows that no age restrictions have been considered for availing these facilities, and it is explicitly stated in this system: “Initially, the bride and groom each register separately in the marriage system, and after determining the branch and completing the relevant procedures, marriage facilities are paid to their legal guardian or custodian.”
What Do Statistics Say About Child Marriage?
Tayebeh Siavoshi, a member of the Women’s Faction in Parliament, stated in September of this year, citing civil registration statistics, that in the first half of 1397, the rate of marriage for girls aged 10 to 14 was about 7 percent of all marriages, meaning 17,486 cases.
According to a report from the “Cultural Studies Office of the Parliamentary Research Center,” between 1391 and 1395, between 4.9 to 5.6 percent of girl marriages fell into the 10 to 14 age group. The Director General of Civil Registration in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad had previously reported the registration of 9 marriages of children under 10 years old in 1396 in that province.
Since many underage marriages in Iran are not registered, there are no precise statistics on them.
Society’s Sensitivity to Child Marriage
While a senior official at the Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned about the four-fold increase in early marriages, society has become more sensitive to this issue compared to before and is taking a strong stance against it.
The most recent case of underage marriage that made headlines and sparked public anger on social networks was the marriage of an 11-year-old girl to a young man in Behbahan city in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province in September 1397, which was annulled following public pressure and the pursuit of civil activists and local authorities in that province.
In the final days of 1397, the story of a child’s life unfolded in the media; the story of an 11-year-old girl from Ilam who had been married to a 50-year-old man. According to a report by Imam Ali Society, this girl’s drug-addict family had married her off to a 50-year-old man with seven children and another wife for 15 million tomans. The follow-up by this civil organization and the welfare organization paid off, and the girl, who was given the name “Raha,” was rescued from this life.
Source: DW
