by Majid Rafizadeh • December 15,
2018 at 5:00 am
- After the mullahs'
party imposed Sharia law in Iran and made it the official
unquestionable law of the land, the authorities immediately
changed the age of legal marriage to 9 for girls and 13 for
boys. After 40 years, the Sharia-based law has not changed.
- The prevalence child
marriage "still remains far too high. In a set of 25
countries for which detailed analysis was conducted, at least
one in three women marry before the age of 18, and one in five
women have their first child before the age of 18." — World
Bank.
- According to official
Iranian statistics, 180,000 child marriages take place there
each year. In addition, in 2013 in Iran, a law was passed that
allows men to marry their adopted daughters.
- Facebook acted as an
auction block for a child bride in South Sudan as recently as
last month.
- Unless the
international community steps in and, instead of appealing to
the Islamist leaders of Iran, applies pressure to get these laws
changed, more children will be at risk.
According to
official Iranian statistics, 180,000 child marriages take place there
each year. Besides the physical and sexual abuse endured by little
girls forced into marriage, many also encounter emotional abuse.
(Image source: iStock. Image is illustrative and does not represent
any person in the article.)
"At eight years old my parents sat me down for a
serious talk," said Noushin, during the interview. "I can
still remember the tremble in my mother's voice. She told me that in
two days I would be part of an Islamic religious blessing. My father
insisted that I behave, and not cause a scene. I was confused, but I
trusted them, that they were telling me the truth. I trusted them
right up to the moment that the wedding ring went onto my finger and
I became the bride of a 43 year old man." Noushin, now 19, is
the mother of three.
You might assume that her parents, who so willingly
gave their child to this man, were not educated or had never been
exposed to modern ways of thinking. In fact, Noushin's father had
been educated in Europe, and then came back to his country to work
for the regime.
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