Ibrahim Zadeh, the head of the Rashtkhar Judiciary said that everyday 2 to 3 adolescence warrants [warrants which authorize that a child has reached puberty for marriage] are issued by the Judiciary.

He said that most of the warrants are issued for villagers especially in more deprived areas. This is while the Judiciary does not have the ability to investigate and see what becomes of these girls, the condition under which they are married and to whom they are married…

The head of the Chenaran Judiciary who seems to have also witnessed an increase of this phenomenon [child marriages] warned officials in this regard and said, “These days, early marriages for girls have become widespread which causes certain damages”.

“Most of these marriages are for 11-13 year old girls who are married to boys over 20 and because they start their life with a lack of information and with wrong methods, it leads to a divorce”…

A judge who presides over a family court [court that sees to divorces and child custody etc.] who asked not to be named confirmed the increase of these kinds of marriages and said that this part of the [story] of those who get adolescent warrants for their daughters is the good part and that the bad part of the story is where small girls are unofficially married off to older men and the father of the girl receives money in exchange and in a way sells his daughter.

“The widespread use of narcotics and addiction especially in rural areas and the increase of fathers who do not have the ability to provide for their families because of addiction has led to the existence of such a phenomenon”, he stressed.

A child activist also said that currently according to existing statistics, there are 900,000 children who are married in the country. (Qods state-run daily, Khabar Online state-run website- Sep. 11, 2011)

[Note: according to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, girls reach the age of puberty at 9 which authorizes their marriage at this age]

Source : Freedom Messenger