Iran

17% of girls in Iran marry before age 18 and 3% marry before age 15.

Figures published by the Iran Statistical Center (ISC) between March-June 2021 showed that 9750 girls aged 10-14 were officially wed in the three-month period, the highest number of child marriages recorded in a single quarter of the Iranian calendar. Such figures could well be higher given that the numbers published by the ISC only reflect registered marriages, and not unregistered marriages, which are common in rural areas of Iran.

According to the Iranian Statistics Center, between 2021 and 2022, there were at least 27,448 recorded marriages of children below the age of 15 .

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran reported that about 40,635 marriages of girls under 15 years of age were registered between 2012 and 2013, of which more than 8,000 involved men who were at least 10 years older.

According to a member of the Judicial and Legal Commission of the Iranian Parliament, thousands of children get married unofficially without registration, and in many cases, a girl’s actual age is not correctly recorded.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys.

In Iran, child marriage is also driven by:

● Poverty: Some families marry their daughters in exchange for money or a house. This has led to the perception that girls are commodities in a deal. A girl’s beauty is considered to be important in determining how high her bride price is.

● Harmful practices: Child marriage can take different forms in Iran. Blood marriages are reportedly still practiced in tribal areas, and involve a girl being married in order to resolve a feud between two tribes. Naval string marriages involve a girl being “pledged” to marry a cousin or distant relative when she is born through a symbolic cutting of the umbilical cord. Temporary marriages (Sigheh), used to get around Islamic restrictions on sex outside wedlock involving minors, are also common.

● Religion: Sharia-based Iranian law states that the legal age for marriage is 13 for girls and 15 for boys, but marriages can still be carried out at a younger age with the consent of fathers and permission from court judges. This has enabled a culture whereby child marriage is considered somewhat socially acceptable.

● Family honour: In some parts of the country, families marry their young daughters to improve their position in their tribe. Girls are also married early to prevent them from entering a relationship and dishonouring the family.

● Violence against women and girls: In 2023, Samira Sabzian, a victim of child marriage at the age of 15, became the 800th victim to be executed by the Iranian government. At the age of 19, after years of being a victim of domestic abuse and child marriage, she was sentenced for the murder of her husband.

● Displacement: Iran hosts almost one million Afghan refugees, in addition to around 2.5 million Afghan residents. Afghanistan has high rates of child marriage, and forced displacement can put girls at an increased risk of being married due to the lack of protection systems and because families see child marriage as a way to cope with greater economic hardship and to protect girls from violence.

Iran has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Iran ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, but made reservation to articles and provisions which may be contrary to the Islamic Sharia law. Iran is one of few countries that has not signed or ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, Iran agreed to review recommendations to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for both boys and girls without exception and eliminate the practice of early and forced marriage.

During its 2014 Universal Periodic Review, Iran agreed to examine recommendations to abolish laws encouraging the marriage of girls as young as nine, and to amend the Civil Code to bring the minimum age for marriage to 18 years old.

In 2019, a video of the wedding ceremony of a 11-year-old girl and her 22-year-old cousin in rural Iran, and reports of another 11-year-old girl married as a second wife to a man four times her age sparkled public outcry against child marriage in Iran. The images brought pressure on local and national officials and the Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, tweeted that she was going to pursue the matter.

However, while there are some reformist politicians and activists advocating for a change to Iran’s marriage laws, there has been little progress in recent years and the issue remains sensitive.

In 2018, a motion was put together by the Women's Faction of the Majlis (the national legislative body of Iran) to raise the age of marriage to 16 for girls and 18 for boys. The motion was sent to the Majlis Legal and Judicial Committee, but was dismissed for “contradicting with Islamic jurisdiction, current laws and social norms”.

Under the Civil Code 2007, marriage “before the age of majority” is prohibited. However the age of majority is 9 lunar years (8 years and 9 months) for girls and 15 lunar years for boys.

Members of the Cultural Commission of Iran have advocated for religious scholars to amend article 1041 of the Civil Code on Marriage Age so that legal authorities can have greater power over deciding whether child marriages can go ahead.