Banning the marriage of a nine-year-old minor after a local campaign

Underage marriage is a phenomenon that society struggles with and supported by old customs that some do not accept in a new society. Today, there is a voice being heard through social media, as a campaign on social media in Iran led to the suspension of the marriage of a 9-year-old girl to a 22-year-old man after The spread of a clip about their engagement ceremony.

And the Kohgaloyeh Provincial Court, in central Iran, announced that, based on the decision of the head of the court, the marriage contract of the young man with the girl will be annulled and annulled until the appropriate age is reached.

In the clip, which shows the engagement ceremony in the village of Lekik, in Bahmaei District, the young girl is seen wearing a wedding dress locally, while the two families negotiate a dowry.

A clergyman also appears reading the terms of the marriage contract to the newlyweds, and asking the girl to utter the word “yes” if she agrees to the marriage, which is answered shyly and in a low voice.

The spread of the clip led activists to launch a campaign on social media against underage marriage and demanded the government to take action to stop this situation and enact laws to prevent the spread of the phenomenon.

According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), the head of the Kohgaloyeh and Boyer Ahmad courts, Hassan Ngin Taji, announced that the marriage contract was canceled after speaking to the young man and the girl and their families.

He said that according to Article 50 of the Family Protection Law, the husband, the wife's guardian and the religiously committed man have committed a criminal offense, and they will appear before the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Iranian law sets the age of 13 for girls' marriage and 15 for young men, subject to the approval of parents and a court decision.

Last year, a number of parliamentarians proposed a bill to raise the legal age of marriage for girls to 16 years to combat the phenomenon of “marriage of underage girls,” but the Parliament’s Judicial Committee rejected the proposal.

The draft law also stipulates that the court will allow the marriage of girls between the ages of 13 and 16 after a forensic medical examination and the consent of the parents and taking into account the interests of the girl.

But clerics and senior religious authorities in Iran refused to specify the legal age for girls under the pretext that it is “contrary to Islamic law.”

Hard-line clerics criticized the campaign against underage marriage and considered it to come within the framework of the Western cultural invasion project and the “UNESCO 2030” document on gender equality, which Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei refused to sign the government to.

According to official statistics in Iran, about 70 girls and boys are married under the age of 14 throughout the country.