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| Sevil Suleymani |
"Girls marrying before maturity can suffer from depression. Engaging in sexual intercourse before the body matures can cause many diseases in their bodies. During pregnancy, immature girls and their children face a 50% risk of death."
This was stated by women's rights activist and gender researcher Sevil Suleymani in an interview with Voice of America.
According to Suleymani, against the backdrop of a worsening national economy, some families marry off their daughters to reduce costs or to secure assistance by becoming relatives of wealthier families.
The number of child marriages in the provinces of Iranian Azerbaijan is increasing at an alarming rate. In just one year, 4,400 girls aged 10-14 were married in Ardabil province. The Director-General of Social and Cultural Affairs in Zanjan province announced that 14,000 marriages involving children under 14 take place annually in Iran. In Zanjan province, the number of marriages involving children under the age of 14 has risen to 1,400 per year.
The Director of the Health and Welfare Department of Ardabil province has issued a warning about the widespread occurrence of child marriages in the region and has called for efforts to prevent and stop this process.
"This phenomenon has negative psychological, physical, and social effects. If the rising trend continues, it will cause very negative consequences in society in the future," he said.
He also pointed out that these marriages mostly occur in regions that are less modernized and culturally backward, where girls are considered as the family's honor, and families believe it is necessary to marry them off to protect that honor.
Sevil Suleymani believes that the higher incidence of child marriage in the provinces of Iranian Azerbaijan is also due to the fact that marriages are more likely to be officially registered in these regions.
"This does not mean that this issue does not occur in other regions of Iran. It is just that in Iranian Azerbaijan, where marriage registrations are more common, we observe a higher number of such marriages. In cities like Tabriz, Zanjan, and Ardabil, girls are not married through temporary marriages (sigheh) – instead, a formal marriage contract is signed, and the marriage is officially registered. In other provinces, many marriages are not registered in official documents," she said.
The women's rights activist notes that Sharia law plays a relatively minor role in child marriage. In her view, the reduction of child marriage in a society is related to the state's implementation of strict laws and its educational policies. Süleymani believes that Sharia law is not the primary cause of child marriage and is merely used as a tool to implement this practice.
"The education system and the state's firm decisions can pave the way for reducing child marriage and eventually eliminating it from society," she said.
According to UNICEF's definition, child marriage refers to a marriage contracted before the individual reaches the age of 18.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the UN on November 20, 1989, a person under the age of 18 is considered a child, and the convention prohibits child marriage.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
“Erkən nikah uşaqların fiziki və ruhi sağlamlığını risk altında qoyur”