A take on early child marriage in Iran

Shilan Dargahi

doi:10.35241/emeraldopenres.14249.1

Abstract

This is an opinion piece on the practice of early child marriage in Iran, with a brief review of the causes and consequences of this practice. This piece critically looks at the blanket policies, such as minimum age at marriage, that criminalise early child marriage and discusses why such policies may do more harm than good when they are not compatible with the social norms of the societies in which they are implemented.

Highlights

Early child marriage is considered a violation of human rights by the United Nations and is recognised as a type of modern slavery by International Labour Organisation
As long as there are economic incentives to early child marriage, families will engage in this practice and instead of formal registers rely on Shariah law that legitimises a temporary, unregistered marriage
It is under these cultural settings that I argue that a human rights approach to early child marriage, and the reliance on criminalising early child marriage, may lead to temporary unregistered marriages among the most deprived groups and in this way expose vulnerable girls to worse economic and social conditions, as they don’t even benefit from legal protection of registered marriages

Summary

Introduction

Legal interventions need to be complemented with social programmes that are compatible with social norms and provide families with a meaningful alternative to marrying their children at a young age. As long as there are economic incentives to early child marriage, families will engage in this practice and instead of formal registers rely on Shariah law that legitimises a temporary, unregistered marriage.

Results

Conclusion