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 marriages, citing the increase in marriage loans. There is no age limit for those receiving marriage facilities, leaving the door open for child abuse.
A senior official in the Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned about a fourfold increase in child marriages in Iran, and attributes it to the increase in marriage loans. The senior official does not consider marriage facilities as a step towards increasing marriages in the country. This is despite the fact that the institution providing marriage facilities has not imposed an age limit for availing these loans, which, according to experts, has opened the way for the exploitation of children.
Mohammad Mehdi Tondgoyan, Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs of the Ministry of Sports and Youth of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has announced a fourfold increase in child marriages in Iran following the increase in marriage loans.
According to hardliners, poor parents in deprived areas, who sometimes also suffer from cultural poverty, are "trading" their underage children for marriage in order to increase the loan amount.
On Tuesday, December 10, in an interview with ISNA, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports expressed his dissatisfaction with the increase in marriage loans and its repayment terms, adding that this measure not only did not help increase the marriage rate, but also paved the way for the growth of social harms.
The commentator warned about the abuse of marriage facilities, saying: "Statistics show that after the increase in marriage loans, child marriage has also increased sharply in some areas, and at least compared to last year [2018], this issue has increased fourfold in some parts of the country."
According to information contained in the "Marriage Loan Facility" system of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after completing the registration process, the bride and groom are each paid 30 million tomans in marriage facilities. Each couple must pay about one million and one hundred thousand tomans in monthly installments to repay this loan, a figure that, according to Mohammad Mehdi Tondgoyan, is beyond the financial capacity of many young people.
Age limit for marriage loan
The question that arises in this regard is whether the law has devised a mechanism to protect children in deprived areas and whether there is an age limit for enjoying the Qarz al-Hasanah marriage facility?
A visit to the Central Bank's system in the "Frequently Asked Questions" section shows that there is no age limit for enjoying this facility, and the system clearly states: "Initially, the husband and wife each register individually in the marriage system, and after determining the branch and going through the relevant procedures, the marriage facility is paid to their guardian or legal guardian."
What do the statistics say about child marriage?
Tayyaba Siavoshi, a member of the Women's Faction in the Parliament, said in September of this year, citing civil registration statistics, that in the first six months of 2018, the rate of marriages of girls (10 to 14 years old) was about 7 percent of all marriages, or 17,486 cases.
According to a report by the Cultural Studies Office of the Parliamentary Research Center, between 2012 and 2016, between 4.9 and 5.6 percent of marriages among girls aged 10 to 14 were in the age group of 10. The Director General of Civil Registration of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad had previously reported the registration of 9 marriages under 10 years of age in this province in 2017.
Since many underage marriages in Iran are not registered, there are no accurate statistics on them.
Society's sensitivity to the phenomenon of child marriage
Meanwhile, a senior official from the Ministry of Sports and Youth has warned that early marriages have quadrupled, and that society has become more sensitive to this issue than before and is taking a strong stance against it.
The last case of underage marriage that was reported in the media and sparked public outrage on social media was the marriage of an 11-year-old girl to a young man in Bahmei city, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province, Iran, in September 2018. Due to public pressure and follow-up by civil activists and local authorities in the province, the child's marriage was declared invalid.
It was in the last days of 2018 that the story of a child’s life was covered in the media; the story of an 11-year-old girl, a resident of Ilam, who was married to a 50-year-old man. According to the Imam Ali Society, the girl’s addicted family had married her to a 50-year-old man with seven children and another wife for 15 million tomans. The follow-up efforts of this NGO and the Welfare Organization paid off, and the girl, who was named “Raha,” was pulled out of this life.
Source: DW
