{"id":3298,"date":"2026-11-04T08:57:50","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/?p=3298"},"modified":"2026-11-04T08:57:52","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T08:57:52","slug":"child-marriage-destroying-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/child-marriage-destroying-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Child Marriage: Destroying Childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Child marriage in Iran is not a phenomenon that can be hidden, yet as time goes on obtaining statistics about it has become increasingly difficult. According to reports, judicial authorities recently banned the publication of any statistics regarding the marriages of underage girls. This decision is an attempt to conceal a reality that is both a source of embarrassment for the government internationally and one that brings the country’s existing laws and official interpretations of Sharia into question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest published data from the Statistical Center of Iran paints a disturbing picture. In 2021, approximately 69,103 babies were born to mothers aged between 10 and 19. Of these, 1,474 babies were born to mothers aged between 10 and 14; in other words children who had not yet even reached full adolescence had become mothers. These figures represent only part of the reality, since many early marriages, particularly in rural and marginalized areas, are never officially registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The culmination of decades of efforts to improve children’s conditions worldwide was the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. This document defines everyone under the age of 18 as a child. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child also calls on governments whose legal age of adulthood is below 18 to raise it to 18. UNICEF and other international organizations likewise consider marriage before this age a violation of children’s rights and require member states to establish laws to prevent it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Islamic Republic of Iran acceded to this convention in 1994, but did so conditionally, stating that it would not consider provisions contrary to Islamic Sharia binding. In practice, this reservation has opened the way for ignoring a significant portion of its obligations. The execution of individuals who were under 18 at the time of committing their alleged crimes, the denial of education to large numbers of children, child labor in hazardous occupations, violence, gender segregation, and forced marriage during childhood are among the most obvious examples of these violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the late 1990s, Iran’s Civil Code allowed a guardian, who is invariably a man, to marry off a girl at the age of nine and arrange a wife for a boy at the age of fifteen. Following years of campaigning by women’s and children’s rights activists, Article 1041 of the Civil Code was amended in the early 2000s, setting the minimum marriage age at 13 for girls and 15 for boys, according to the Iranian calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this amendment was accompanied from the outset by a major exception. The note to this article permits marriage before these ages with the guardian’s permission and a determination of the child’s \u201cbest interests\u201d by a competent court. As a result, the legal minimum age has effectively become a weak barrier. These loopholes are nothing more than legalistic religious pretexts: mechanisms that preserve the appearance of legality while simultaneously allowing the marriage of very young girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early marriage, particularly for girls, deprives them of opportunities to play, receive an education, develop their talents, and form their own identities. Instead of attending school, a child bride is burdened with a lifetime of domestic labor and loses the ability to make decisions about her own life. Economic dependence and the age gap between her and her husband make her more vulnerable to domestic violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The physical consequences are also severe. The body of a girl who has not yet completed her development is not prepared for pregnancy and childbirth. The absence of sexual and reproductive health education doubles these risks. According to commonly cited estimates, the risk of maternal death during pregnancy and childbirth for girls under 15 is up to five times higher than for women in their twenties. Depression, anxiety, and lasting psychological trauma are also common among these girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consequences of this phenomenon are not limited to the children themselves. Dropping out of school passes the cycle of poverty on to the next generation, while early divorces increase the number of teenage mothers who become heads of households. For this reason, child marriage is, in essence, a form of child abuse, the enslavement of children, and a criminal offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Child marriage rests on three foundations. The first is poverty and economic deprivation: many families marry off their daughters to reduce household expenses or receive a dowry and financial assistance from the husband. Addiction among household heads and cultural deprivation further exacerbate this situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second foundation is outdated traditions that portray early marriage as a means of preserving a girl’s \u201chonor\u201d and \u201cchastity.\u201d The third is the official legal framework and religious interpretations that permit these marriages and grant them legitimacy. The Islamic Republic not only opposes gender equality in law and practice, but through these laws also helps revive customs that endanger children’s physical and psychological well being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ending child marriage requires comprehensive action. The first step is to raise the minimum marriage age to 18 for both girls and boys and eliminate all exceptions that allow a guardian’s or court’s permission to replace the informed consent of a legally mature individual. Child marriage must be recognized as a criminal offense, and those who officiate, promote, or facilitate such marriages, including clerics and other individuals, must be held accountable for violating children’s rights and human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, legislation alone is not enough. Combating poverty, expanding free and compulsory education, providing age-appropriate health and sexual education, and raising families’ awareness of the harmful consequences of these marriages are essential. Parents who often marry off their daughters under the pressure of poverty must receive support and be made aware of the consequences of their actions. Statistical transparency is also a prerequisite for effective policymaking, and banning the publication of statistics merely conceals the wound. The reality is that as long as the current system continues to legislate on the basis of Sharia and traditions dating back to the era of ignorance, such reforms will not be possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Child marriage in Iran is not a phenomenon that can be hidden, yet as time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[33,207,208,209,148,24,10,18,191,30,8],"post_badge":[],"class_list":["post-3298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-quote","tag-abroad-committee-of-the-communist-party-of-iran","tag-child","tag-child-marriage","tag-childhood","tag-children","tag-communist-party-of-iran","tag-cpi","tag-daily-quote","tag-girls","tag-iran","tag-komala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3300,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions\/3300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3298"},{"taxonomy":"post_badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpiran.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_badge?post=3298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}