Two days after the marriage, a prosecutor annulled the marriage and said he was indicting the mullah (officiant) and the girl's parents for an illegal underaged marriage.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFbride and groom 311(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
A video has surfaced showing an 11-year-old girl marrying her adult cousin in rural Iran.The video shows a wedding that took place on August 26th in Bahmaei, a very poor town in the Boyer-Ahmad province of Iran. You can see the bride and groom sitting next to each other and hugging, the bride is blurred out in the video because of her young age. The ceremony is extremely traditional as the groom declares he will pay the traditional "mahr" for his bride which is about 9000 euros. Many people believed that child marriages were in decline in Iran, but now the video is causing widespread outrage according to France 24. Two days after the marriage, a prosecutor annulled the marriage and said he was indicting the mullah (officiant) and the girl's parents for an illegal underaged marriage. According to Article 1041 of Iran's Civil Code, the marriage age is 13 for girls and 15 for boys, as long as they have their parents consent. However, families are able to marry their daughters off at a younger age as long as a judge declares the young bride "intellectually mature" enough for marriage.
Nearly 6,000 children are married each year in the country, according to the Iranian Students News Agency.
