Ministry of Youth: Child Marriage Has Quadrupled in Some Parts of Iran
The Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned about a fourfold increase in child marriage, attributing it to increased marriage loans. No age restrictions have been imposed on those benefiting from marriage facilities, leaving the door open for child exploitation, according to experts.
A senior official at the Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned about a fourfold increase in child marriage in Iran, attributing it to increased marriage loans. This senior official does not consider marriage facilities as a step toward increasing marriage in the country. Meanwhile, the institution providing marriage loan facilities has not imposed age restrictions for borrowers, and according to experts, has created an opportunity for child exploitation.
Mohammad Mahdi Tandguyan, Deputy for Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Sports and Youth of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has reported a fourfold increase in child marriage in Iran following the increase in marriage loans.
According to Tandguyan, poor parents in deprived areas who sometimes suffer from cultural poverty are “trading” their underage children in the wake of increased marriage loans.
The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports on Tuesday, December 10, expressed his dissatisfaction with the increase in marriage loans and their repayment conditions in an interview with ISNA, adding that this measure has not only failed to increase the marriage rate but has also paved the way for social harms.
Tandguyan warned about the misuse of marriage facilities and said: “Statistics show that following the increase in marriage loans, child marriage has significantly increased in some areas, and compared to last year [year 97], this issue has increased up to fourfold in some parts of the country.”
According to information contained in the “Marriage Qard al-Hasan Loan Facilities” system of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, each bride and groom receives 30 million tomans in marriage loan facilities after completing the registration process. Each couple must pay approximately one million and one hundred thousand tomans monthly to repay the loan, an amount that according to Mohammad Mahdi Tandguyan 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 benefiting from marriage loan facilities.
Referring to the Central Bank’s system in the “Frequently Asked Questions” section shows that no age restrictions have been considered for these facilities, and it is explicitly stated in the 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 six months of 1397, the rate of marriage for girls aged 10 to 14 was approximately 7 percent of all marriages, meaning 17,486 cases.
According to a report by the “Cultural Studies Office of the Parliamentary Research Center,” between the years 91 and 95, between 4.9 to 5.6 percent of girls’ marriages were in the age group of 10 to 14 years. The director general of civil registration in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad had previously reported registering 9 cases of marriage of children under 10 years old in the province in 1396.
Since many underage marriages in Iran are not registered, there is no accurate statistics on them.
Society’s Sensitivity to Child Marriage
While a senior official at the Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned about the fourfold increase in early marriages, society has become more sensitive to this issue compared to before and strongly opposes it.
The most recent case of underage marriage that became public and sparked public outrage 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 of year 97, which was annulled following public pressure and the pursuit of civil activists and local authorities of the province.
It was in the final days of year 97 when another child marriage story broke in the media; the story of an 11-year-old girl, resident of Ilam, who was married to a 50-year-old man. According to Imam Ali Society’s report, the girl’s drug-addicted family sold her for 15 million tomans to marry a 50-year-old man with seven children and another wife. The pursuit of this NGO and the welfare organization proved successful, and the girl, who was named “Raha,” was rescued from this life.
Source: DW
