• Childhood: The miserable life of Afghan children in Iran
  • Marriage: Iran wants to curb express divorce

The video has unleashed outrage in Iran, a country where marriages are legal from the age of 13. In it you can see how a girl, who keeps her small makeup face contained, remains seated, next to an obviously older man, among the family's revelry. A scene that happened this time in the humble southwestern province of Kohgiluye and Boyer-Ahmad but that, to the discontent of a part of the Iranian population, is not anecdotal.

On this occasion, however, local authorities have intervened to revoke the marriage after denouncing that the girl, whom her relatives urge in the video to say "yes, I want", was only nine years old. The fiance, 22. "The marriage contract between the two has been canceled, following a judicial decision," an Iranian official confirmed to Iranian media. As he added, the matchmaker, the guardian of the minor and the cleric who certified the wedding will be brought before the judge.

The decision of the authorities came while the video caused a wave of protests on social networks. Complaints of "pedophilia" and "child abuse" spread among Internet users. The debate jumped to the local press. The center-reformist newspaper 'Sazandegi' took the case to its cover, although with an unfortunate headline: "The forbidden fruit." Many denounced that the same relatives incited the marriage union and that in the recording, even, they would be heard jokingly commenting on the price of the dowry.

According to the aforementioned authorities, those involved in that wedding could face penalties ranging from six months to two years in jail, for celebrating a marriage with a child under 13 years. If he were older, the same would not have happened. Although the Quran does not specify a minimum age for marriage, the jurisprudence of the Islamic Republic, based on the 'sharia' or Islamic law, has established that the appropriate age for marriage is puberty: 13 years for girls and 14 years for the children, at the time of "yes."

Under Iranian law, it is mandatory to be 18 years old to get a driving license or handle certain economic matters; but it takes a lot less to consummate a marriage. According to official statistics, 36,000 younger girls were married in Iran during the past year. According to data from the Civil Registry of the province of Kohgiluye and Boyer-Ahmad, published by the semi-official ISNA agency, in 2018 there were nine marriages with children under ten years of age and a dozen with children under 11.

Yavad Heydarian, a journalist from that region who has investigated the matter, links this type of marriage to entrenched practices between clans, in conditions of poverty and isolation. It is feared that this custom persists. In order to avoid it, a group of parliamentarians, among which there are people close to the field of centrist President Hasan Rohani, has been trying to modify the legislation since 2016. Last December, the Parliamentary Committee for Judicial and Legal Affairs laid down his proposal.

"Unfortunately, our plan to prohibit marriage for [girls] under 13 has been rejected by the committee, although previously [the bill] had been approved [in full] by Parliament," he then lamented via Twitter the Parliamentarian Tayebe Siavoshi. "Opponents have mostly mentioned theological issues and 'sharia' as reasons and, of course, argued that attempts were made to imitate the designs of the West," he added.

His bill proposed an absolute ban on marriages with girls under 13, and with boys under 16. Also, to marry a girl between 13 and 16, and to do so with a boy between 16 and 18, The proposed rule required parental and judicial consent. But the proposal was wrecked amid the debate between Iranian factions, in which the rigorists, who control the Judiciary, have stood firm in their interpretation of religious texts.

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