Iran's National Civil Registration Organization’s website has removed statistics which revealed around 1,500 children were born to mothers under the age of 15 in Iran last year as numbers surged from 364 in 2020.
The sudden disappearance of the data has sparked concerns over government transparency, with critics accusing authorities of attempting to downplay the ongoing issue of child marriages in the country.
“Here’s yet another statistic that has become classified! The statistics on newborns from mothers aged 10 to 14 have been removed from the National Organization for Civil Registration’s website. Last year, around 1,500 children were born to mothers under the age of 14,” wrote Iranian journalist Marziyeh Mahmoodi on X Sunday.
Additionally, in a piece published on Etemad earlier this month, Iranian commentator Abbas Abdi also revealed that the organization, which previously provided weekly birth statistics categorized by the mother’s age, has now entirely omitted these figures from public access.
“I anonymously contacted their office and was told, ‘Because a certain newspaper published the statistics and the issue of child marriage became widespread, we were ordered not to publish the data anymore,’” Abdi wrote in a piece published in Etemad.
He added, “I asked, ‘Hasn't there been an order to stop this tragedy of pregnancies among girls under 14?’ They responded, ‘No. The only order is not to publish the statistics!’” He emphasized that access to accurate information is crucial for addressing societal issues, calling the decision both illegal and detrimental to effective policy making.
In 2020, 364 babies were born to girls under the age of 15, according to a report by IranWire citing the Statistical Center of Iran, the latest such figures available. This means that the number of babies born to girls under the age of 15 in Iran has surged by an alarming 312%, rising from 364 in 2020 to around 1,500 in 2023.
Last year, a report from the Research Center of the Iranian Parliament, revealed that 184,000 marriages involving girls under the age of 15 were registered in Iran between 2017 and 2022.
However, Iran's Statistical Center recorded around 25,900 cases of girls under 15 getting married in 2022, less than the 32,000 such cases registered in 2021, suggesting discrepancies in the data released by the government with a significantly lower figure reported by Iran’s government backed Statistical Center.
Despite global standards considering individuals under 18 as "children", child marriages are allowed from the age of 13 for girls and 15 for boys in Iran according to Article 1041 of the Iranian Civil Code.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has consistently emphasized policies promoting population growth, fertility, and early marriages, setting a goal to boost the population to 150 million by 2050.
In line with these goals, the Rejuvenation of the Population and Protection of the Family (RPPF) law, was enacted by Parliament in 2021 under Khamenei’s directive. The law imposes penalties for actions deemed to oppose childbearing and early marriages, placing population growth above concerns for children's rights.
