26,000 marriages of children under 15 violate human rights, considered violence against women
The Iranian National Statistics Center (NSC) announced that 25,900 girls and 15 boys under 15 years of age got married in Iran during the Persian year 1401 (from March 2022 to March 2023).
The semi-official daily, Hammihan reported on October 19, 2023, that during the same period, 1,392 infants were born from mothers under 15 years old, and six from fathers under 15 years.
This data is 64,632 for mothers and 3,282 for fathers in the 15-19 years range.
The NSC also registered 779 divorces for under-15 girls and 71 cases for girls between 15 and 19.
According to these statistics, an average of 135,000 marriages of girls under the age of 18 are registered in Iran every year, of which about 1,700 are related to girls under the age of 13.
Child and early marriages deal irreparable blows to the physical and mental health of children.
Sociologists in Iran say the regime encourages and promotes marriages of children because they encourage population growth. The regime adopted a Population Growth Plan in November 2021 under Ebrahim Raisi.
Marriage under the age of 18 is considered a violation of children’s rights, a violation of human rights, and violence against women and girls.
The Iranian regime is not transparent in announcing statistics and its goal is essentially to cover up the depth and dimensions of the disasters in the country.
A few years ago, one of the Judiciary officials said on average, between 500,000 and 600,000 underage girls get married in Iran per year. This figure does not account for the many unregistered marriages. (Ali Kazemi, the state-run daily Entekhab – March 4, 2019)
