Women’s violence can take many forms, including child brides and early marriage. Iran’s misogynous regime promotes early marriage all the time. Simultaneously, the number of child brides and victims of early marriage committing suicide is on the rise.
Since the clerical regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, issued direct orders for the population policy’s implementation, regime officials have publicly supported child marriage.
“Begin planning for the life and family you want to have from this moment,” Ensieh Khazali, the head of the presidential directorate for Women and Family Affairs, told 9-year-old schoolgirls in Tehran. On April 20, the state-run ILNA News Agency reported that “you can raise your children to be like Qassem Soleimani.”
Last year, Iran’s Population Registration Organization reported that mothers aged 10 to 14 gave birth to more than 1,474 babies. According to the state-run ISNA News Agency, 69,000 births from child mothers aged 10 to 19 were reported on April 13.
Child brides and early marriage are examples of violence against women.
In Iran, misogynous regime constantly encourages early marriage.
At same time, suicide is rising among child brides and victims of early marriage.#43YearsOfMisery #FreeIran2022 https://t.co/N9TJE9KYvN
— Women's Committee NCRI (@womenncri) May 29, 2022
According to Iran’s National Statistical Center (NSC), 11,235 girls under the age of 15 were married in the fall of 2021. According to the same report, the average age of divorce for child brides born in the early 1980s was 15. On April 16, the state-run Sharq newspaper reported that more than 610 girls under the age of 15 had been divorced by the end of autumn 2021.
Furthermore, the NSC reports that over the last five years, 131,000 children under the age of 15 have married.
None of the figures released by the regime or the regime’s media are correct. The regime is not transparent when it comes to statistics, especially when it comes to violence against women. Official statistics in Iran never reflect the current state of the country.
The physical and mental harms caused by child marriage are irreversible for girls, particularly those who become pregnant before reaching the age of 18. Child brides face issues such as depression, suicide, divorce, and dropping out of school. These tragedies only serve to exacerbate the cultural and economic poverty cycle.
Fatemeh Sayyadi took her own life on March 30 in Shiraz by hanging herself. Fatemeh’s baby, who was eight months old at the time, was discovered next to the lifeless body and taken to the hospital four days later. Fatemeh Sayyadi was forced to marry when she was a child, and she was a victim of child marriage.
A media report from March 2022 detailed the murder of three children by their mother in a village in Ramhormoz County, southwest Iran. Zahra A., as she was known, was a 27-year-old woman. Before hanging herself, she had killed her two sons (ages 10 and 6) and her daughter (age 3). According to the state-run IRNA News Agency, Zahra A. was a victim of child marriage on April 5.
A mother in Piranshahr, West Azerbaijan Province, attempted suicide after killing her two children, aged six months and twelve years, in a similar case. Mental and nerve disorders were blamed for the mother’s attempted suicide, highlighting the significant pressure girls face when forced into early marriage.
Sita Sheikh-Moradi, a 17-year-old mother of a 4-month-old child, set herself on fire and died as a result. She doused herself in alcohol and set fire to herself on May 3. She died in a hospital because 95 percent of her body had been burned. Sita was only 15 years old when she married.
Poverty and rampant violence against women are directly responsible for many of the pressures faced by Iranian women. The violence is frequently reported in state-run media, with husbands, fathers, and brothers murdering women.
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