Iran Focus
London, 14 Dec – This terrible news was revealed by a report into the causes and consequences of child marriage in the marginalized neighbourhoods of Iran, which was presented during a seminar on child marriage in the Amphitheatre Hall of the University of Science and Technology.
This was reported by the state-run newspaper, Shargh, who accurately pointed out that “children do not get married; they are traded instead.”
It’s true, marriage is defined as “the legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners in a personal relationship”. The key word in that definition is partners; children are not the partners of adults.
Zahra Rahimi, the director of the Imam Ali Relief Society (an organization dedicated to helping women and children) said: “In most of these marriages, the family of a girl trades their daughter in exchange for a house. [According to recent news], a 10-year-old girl has married a 60-year-old man in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. In this marriage, the girl does not expect to be loved but she has only made a deal with the man to receive money.”
She added: “In marginalized families, as the children start a married life, they intend to have children in order to prepare them for work.”
Factfile: Child Marriage in Iran
– In 2015, 43,000 children (mainly girls) got married between the ages of 10 and 15
– That number increased by 10,000 cases since 2014
– 2,000 of those child brides are currently separated or divorced
– The groom is usually much older than the bride
– The main causes are poverty and unemployment
What is the government doing?
Not a lot.
The Iranian Regime’s legal age for marriage is 13 for girls and 15 for boys, but with their father’s or a judge’s consent, children can marry younger; parental or judicial consent is a contradiction, as the children are not able to consent.
Still regime official report that despite these lax laws, many children are still getting married illegally with 12-13,000 cases of forged proof of age.
