Child marriage: 30,000 girls under the age of 14 marry annually in the country
Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, stated in a webinar on child rights in the Iranian legal system, “According to statistics, about 30,000 girls under the age of 14 are married each year,” adding, “The age of marriage is subject to a note.” It is subject to the judge's discretion and there is currently no minimum age for marriage. Another issue that should be considered as a means of ensuring children's rights is the adoption clause, which allows a father to marry his adopted child under the conditions that the judge allows. The physical and psychological harms resulting from child marriage have irreparable effects on the lives of girls, especially pregnancies under the age of 18, maternal mortality, depression, and sometimes suicide attempts, in addition to harms such as divorce, failure to attend school, and the persistence of the cycle of cultural and economic poverty.
According to HRANA news agency, citing ISNA, the Vice President's Office for Women and Family Affairs announced that there are approximately 30,000 marriages of girls under the age of 14 per year.
Masoumeh Ebtekar, Deputy Minister of Women and Family Affairs, said: "In the law, the age of marriage is limited by a note to the opinion of the judge, but it can be said that currently there is no minimum age for marriage, and this has created problems for many children."
While announcing that there is no prohibition on marriage for 15- or 16-year-old girls, Ebtekar claimed regarding solutions for further realizing children's rights: "Another issue that should be considered as a means of realizing children's rights is the adoption clause, whereby a father is allowed to marry his adopted child under conditions that the judge allows."
He added: "The law prohibits this marriage, but its note allows marriage. In our opinion, this note needs to be amended, and the deputy is pursuing its amendment."
Ebtekar also referred to reports of corporal punishment of children in schools and said: "We need this law to be well explained in education, and the mechanisms of the government and non-governmental sectors must be continuous."
In January 2019, the Iranian government agreed to the general terms of a bill to set a minimum age for marriage to combat child marriage. The bill sets the minimum age for marriage at 13 for girls and 15 for boys.
Child marriage has been on the rise in Iran in recent years, and child rights activists say the phenomenon will have a negative impact on the health of Iranian families in the future.
The high rate of child marriage before reaching intellectual and mental maturity indicates the extent of this phenomenon in Iran. The age of marriage in Iran is determined based on “sexual maturity,” while experts say that sexual maturity is only part of the dimensions of full human maturity. Growth, awareness, education, and freedom of choice are the most basic and humane conditions for forming a family.
The physical and psychological harms caused by child marriage cause irreparable damage to the lives of girls, especially pregnancies under the age of 18, maternal mortality, depression, and sometimes suicide attempts, in addition to harms such as divorce, failure to attend school, and the persistence of the cycle of cultural and economic poverty.
According to published statistics, over 95,000 divorces involving women under the age of 19 were registered between 2011 and 2015, with approximately 5,760 of these divorces related to marriages in which the couple was under the age of 19.
Source: HRANA
