They Get Married and Smoke Cigarettes at Age 10

An official from Iran’s Social Welfare Organization announced his concerns over the spread of friendships between the sexes among children less than six years of age. He also revealed statistics to conclude that addiction to cigarettes in the country began at age 10. Earlier news reports had indicated that over four thousand children under the age of 14 got married in Iran in 2011, putting themselves at social risk and possible social harm.

Cigarettes or Robin Hood’s Girlfriend?

Farhad Eghtar, the director general for prevention of social injuries at the Social Welfare Organization expressed his concern over foreign cartoon videos that promoted friendships with the opposite sex to children under six years of age and pointed to Robin Hood as an example in which according to him the folk figure is always depicted with a woman next to him.

Eghtar also spoke of the first computer game developed in the country with the aim of educating children on the prevention of social risks and living skills. He added that 5,000 copies of the game would be distributed free of charge to children of 9 years of age and above. Iranian officials for a number of years now have been declaring that the number of school children who are addicted to drugs stands at 30 thousand. Even if one accepts that this figure has remained unchanged over the past few years, it is still an appalling number of addicts for teenagers. In response to protests about the situation and public calls for government efforts to address the issue, Minister of Education Hamidreza Haji Babai announced, “I do not deny that there are addicted school students, but show me any group where they do not exist? I will not present figures on these even if I had them.” Speaking on the same subject, the police chief revealed yet another issue when he said, “The educational system expels students who have addiction problems and then proclaims that there are no addicts among students. This is the reason why most of our addicts are children who have been expelled from schools.”

Towards the end of 2011, the head of the health division of the ministry of health, Gelayel Ardalan, announced, “Usage of cigarettes among teenagers has in recent given way to that of the hookah resulting in higher percentage of young women now using cigarettes while more boys use the hookah.”

Ms Ardalan explained that when asked for the reason among teenage boys and girs, 26 percent said the smell of cigarettes was the determinant in their choice. She added that only 16.5 percent said smoking reduced their tension and among that figure girls outnumbered boys by a ratio of 2 to 1. Twenty seven percent also said that smoking had become a habit for them.”

Growing Number of Younger Brides and Grooms

In recent years, reports have also been indicating a rise in the number of children who got married in the southern and deprived provinces. But according to the head of the Registration Office of Tehran province, 75 boys and girls under the age of 10 got married in the province in 2011. According to this official, 3,929 boys and girls who were between the ages of 10 and 14 got married in the same year while another group of 19,237 people who were between the age of 15 and 19 also got married.

These statistics indicate an alarming trend, especially since they reflect the changes in Tehran. The association for the defense of children’s rights had warned about this development. Farshid Yazdani, the percentage of women under the age of 15 who got married in 2006 stood at 3.2 percent of the total number of married people. This shows an increase of 45 percent when compared with the figures for 2010 when 4.9 percent of married people were under the age of 15. In addition, statistics indicate that some 40 thousand children get married every year. In 2007, for example, there were 950 thousand married children in the country of which about 900 thousand were young girls. Seventy thousand of these children were between the ages of 10 and 14. In 2010, some 43 thousand new marriages between teenagers under 15 years of age were recorded.

During the Pahlavi years, the legal age for marriage was 18 years for women and 20 for men. Exceptions had to be decided by a court. In the Islamic republic of Iran, the State Expediency Council, despite the objections of the Guardians Council, ruled that girls can be married before they reach the age of 13 and boys before 15, provided their parents and a competent court approves. There are plenty of reports where courts have comfortably approved such requests by merely asking the opinion of the surgeon general’s office and raising a few simple questions with the very young girls, plus looking at the traditions of the place where the marriage is to take place.

Such practices take place in the Islamic republic while the Convention on the Rights of the Child specify a child to be every human being below the age of eighteen years and specialists agree that younger children do not have the faculties to make decisions for their own best interest or choose a living partner, in addition to which they also lack the necessary education to be a married partner.

Sharia rules about the maturity age of girls and boys have forced lawmakers in the Islamic republic to disregard these principles resulting in marriages of 9-year old girls. Efforts and warnings by specialists and professionals in the field have only resulted in the creation of a special workgroup, the Presidential Center for Women’s and Family Affairs, tasked with merely “managing” or coordinating the marriage of children under the age of 10, not addressing or opposing the issue.

Dr. Amanollah Gharai-Moghadam, a university sociology professor told Ghanoon (Law) publication, “In some provinces in the country the marriage of a 10 year old girl is considered the norm, so saying this is an unlawful act does not make a difference. People in these regions believe they are acting in line with the Islamic law, the Sharia, and that civil laws are not obstacles to this.” He continued, “Towns in the province of Tehran, such as Varamin, Pakdasht, Robat-Karim, Shahriyar and Karaj have many immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds who continue to follow their own traditions that exist in the regions from where they originally came. In the towns of this province there exist many destitute families who live under the poverty line who are willing to part with their young girls and accept requests for the marriage of their young girls of any age simply to cut their family expenses with no consideration for the rights of the child.” According to him, these young girls become victims of all kinds of psychological and emotional problems down the road even resulting in suicides, fleeings from the home, addiction, divorce etc. In many situations young girls who are married off to older men, eventually turn to extra-marital affairs simply to satisfy their sexual drives as their husbands fail to meet their physical needs. Gharai-Moghadam continued, “In my study I found that 10 to 15 percent of prostitutes in the town of Karaj, were forced to marry between the ages of 10 and 14.”

Another specialist, Farideh Gheirat, an attorney active in women’s affairs echoed these problems. “When a young girl is forced to form a family, she may be physically capable of doing this but she does not necessarily have the emotional maturity and experience to deal with marital issues and may not even have a constructive understanding of her own responsibilities regarding the family or society. In many cases before the family is solidified, these young girls become mothers. Should the marriage fail and the couple turn to divorce, not only will they suffer, but so will their young children and society in general.”