Child marriage has increased by 42 percent in East Azerbaijan
After Zanjan, which ranks first in child marriage, this time the deputy head of social affairs for the East Azerbaijan Welfare Department announced that the marriage of girls under the age of 18 has increased by 42 percent in East Azerbaijan.
Fargol Sahaf, Deputy Director of Social Affairs of the East Azerbaijan Welfare Department, announced on Tuesday, November 11, the sharp increase in the marriage of girls under the age of 18 in East Azerbaijan, saying that during 2019 and 2020, the marriage of girls under the age of 18 in the province increased by 42 percent.
Accordingly, 12,491 marriages in this province are related to girls under the age of 18, and East Azerbaijan ranks second in child marriages in Iran after Zanjan.
Not long ago, an official from the Zanjan governorate announced that out of 36,000 marriages under the age of 14, 1,400 had occurred in Zanjan.
In August of this year, the Iran newspaper reported that the marriageable age for girls in the village of Bidak, located 5 kilometers from Bojnourd, had recently dropped from 11 to 8 to 9 years old.
This number of marriages at young ages was recorded while statistics presented at a conference on children indicated a high number of divorces among Iranian children and the existence of tens of thousands of child widows in Iran.
According to Iranian civil law, the marriage of a girl before reaching the age of 13 and a boy before reaching the age of 15 is subject to the permission of a guardian, which is possible under the condition of expediency and the determination of a competent court.
This is despite the fact that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran has also joined, recognizes individuals under the age of 18 as children and obligates governments to prevent any sexual abuse of children, including "encouraging or coercing children to engage in any sexual activity."
In January of last year, the Islamic Consultative Assembly's Judicial Commission rejected a proposal to ban marriages under the age of 13 due to what it called opposition from religious authorities.
Source: Voice of America
