Sistan and Baluchestan Leads in Under-15 Marriages

The local site 'Oshida' has reported that Sistan and Baluchestan province is the 'leader' in marriages under the age of 15 in Iran, stating that 'this phenomenon' has not yet 'lost its momentum.' On Wednesday, December 25, it reported that 'the issue of marriage at a young age in Sistan and Baluchestan, which is also the largest province in the country, is more prevalent compared to other provinces.' 'Oshida' noted that marriages at a young age 'mostly occur in the cities of Baluchestan, where girls under the age of 15 are forced to marry.' The site described marriage at this age as a 'wrong tradition' that has grown in these areas since ancient times, making girls 'victims of the culture and false beliefs of their elders.' Mohammad Javad Mansour Bastani, head of the Civil Registration Office in Zabol, also stated in an interview with the site that 'these marriages usually happen on the outskirts of large cities, small towns, and villages.' Mansour Bastani identified 'ethnic and religious prejudices and economic problems' as the main factors contributing to such marriages in Sistan and Baluchestan. He also referred to statistics on child marriages in the province, stating, 'this year in the Sistan region, we had three cases of marriages at young ages.' According to the laws of the Islamic Republic, which were approved in 2002, the minimum age for marriage is 13 for girls and 15 for boys. This law had previously set the minimum age for girls at 9 and for boys at 15, remaining in effect for 20 years. Statistics from the Civil Registration Organization in 2014 show that in that year, 40,404 girls under 15 and 32,587 boys under 20 married, with their marriages registered. The organization's statistics also indicate that from 2004 to 2014, a total of 419,488 girls under 15 and 484,885 boys under 20 married. Marriages below the legal age are contrary to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines anyone under 18 as a child. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, reported in a 2014 document that in 2011, at least 48,580 girls aged 10 to 14 were married in Iran.