The marriage age of girls in a village in Bojnourd has been reduced from 11 to 8 to 9 years old.
A report by Iran Newspaper indicates that the marriageable age for girls in the village of Bidak, located 5 kilometers from Bojnord, has recently been reduced from 11 years old to 8 to 9 years old.
On Wednesday, August 6, the Iran newspaper wrote in a report quoting the only girl in the village who is educated and working that "recently this custom has become more common in the village; before, they would get married at the age of 11, but now they get married at the age of 8 or 9. One of the girls in our family is 13 years old and has two little boys."
An informed source also announced that pregnancies under the age of 18 in North Khorasan Province in 2018 accounted for four percent of the total pregnancies in the province. He added that in 2018, the ratio of births at young ages was 5.2 percent in the entire country, while in North Khorasan Province, this figure was recorded at 13.8 percent.
According to the report, a member of the health center said, "Nowadays, most marriages here are between the ages of 9 and 12. They become concubines at the age of 9 and go to their husband's house at the age of 12. 15-year-old girls, who are considered spoiled by the people here, must either become second wives or the wives of men whose husbands have died and who are 50 years old."
The statistics on child marriage and children under the age of 15 who have become mothers are not only related to this village, but reports from various cities, including Hamedan and Zanjan, had previously been published about the statistics on child marriage and mothers under the age of 15.
According to official reports, 44 children under the age of 15 became mothers in Hamedan last year.
Source: Voice of America
