Child Marriage in Iran: More than A Million Cases in Eight Years
Over the past 8 years, more than 1,077,000 female child marriages have occurred in Iran, according to the country’s official data. This figure represented more than a fifth of all marriages registered between 2014 and 2021. The religious city of Mashhad in eastern Iran with more than 4,000 cases had the largest number of child marriages.
International standards define all marriages under the age of 18 as child marriages. But child marriage, whose victims are often young girls, has no clear legal definition in Iran and is not prohibited.
Article 1041 of the Iranian Civil Code makes the marriage of girls under the age of 13 conditional upon the “consent of the guardian” and the “expediency” of the court. However, between 2014 and 2021, nearly 13,500 marriages of girls under the age of 13 were officially registered in the Iranian civil registry offices.
Examination of the past 8 years of data shows that after a period of relative decline, the number of child marriages in Iran has increased in 2021.
According to the Civil Registration Organization’s report in 2021, the number of incidents of registered marriages of women under the age of 18 has increased by about 9000, compared to the previous year, reaching 118 thousand cases. The ratio of child to total marriages has also increased to 21.15%, which is the highest since 2014.
The highest number of child marriages was recorded in 2014 with nearly 170,000 cases. The ratio of child to total marriages was 34.21%.
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In the last 8 years, on average, 21% of women who have been married have been 17 or younger. The ratio of marriages of women under the age of 15 to the total number of registered marriages is more than 5%.
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Official data shows that in 2021, the highest ratio of underage to total marriages occurred in the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, North Khorasan, and Khorasan Razavi. The highest ratio of marriages of women under the age of 15 are in Zanjan, North Khorasan, and Khorasan Razavi provinces. The highest number of marriages of women under 13 were reported in Zanjan, Sistan and Baluchestan, and East Azerbaijan provinces.
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Analyzing the raw data of the Civil Registration Organization of Iran paints a relatively clear picture of the marriages of women in the cities.
According to available data, the eastern city of Mashhad, the capital of Razavi Khorasan province, holds the record of marriages of women under the age of 18, namely more than 4,000 cases. The cities of Ahvaz, Tabriz, Zahedan, Ardabil, and Qom are in the next positions.
The assumption has been that populous cities are ranked higher, but the disturbing trend is the high rate of marriages of children under the age of 13 in smaller cities. Official data shows that the highest of these marriages are recorded in Khodabandeh, Bostanabad, and Quchan counties.
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The highest index of 18-and-under to total marriages is for Sarein county in Ardabil province. In 2021, more than 55% of registered marriages in this county have been child marriages. Zaveh in Khorasan Razavi, and Bostan Abad in East Azerbaijan, have the next highest child marriage rates.
This article was originally published in Persian (available here).