An investigation by the reformist daily Shargh found that a licensed Iranian matchmaking platform lets parents sign up children as young as 13 for marriage, with no age filters or meaningful safeguards in place.
“Children aged 13 and 14 can be registered directly or by parents as marriage candidates,” Shargh wrote on Saturday.
The website Adam and Hava (Adam and Eve), which brands itself as a formal marriage intermediary, allows users to open profiles either for themselves or for a child or relative.
Shargh reporters were able to create a full profile for a girl born in 2012 without any age restriction or identity barrier, indicating that minors can be listed seamlessly as marriage candidates.
Profiles reviewed in the investigation show under-18 users concentrated in deprived regions where early marriage is common. Girls appear most frequently between 13 and 16, while boys cluster between 16 and 18.
The site’s 80-question registration form emphasizes religious observance, gender-role expectations, political attitudes and views on hijab, make-up and social interaction, but includes no questions about consent, emotional readiness or psychological maturity for minors.
Operator cites legal obligations
Executive manager Mohammad-Hossein Asghari defended the platform, saying the law obliges it to accept users who fall within statutory marriage ages. “Article 1041 of the Civil Code sets the marriage age at 13 for women and 15 for men,” Asghari said.
“From a legal standpoint we are obliged to accept membership and cannot block someone who falls within the age range set by law.”
About 300,000 people, he said, have attempted to register, with 70,000 profiles currently active following identity checks and psychological screening. Minors under 15, he added, must have a parent complete the form, and staff speak directly with the child before approval.
Experts warn of deepening risks
Child-rights advocates told Shargh that formalizing under-18 marriage through a widely promoted digital platform deepens an already harmful pattern.
Children who marry between 10 and 16 lack the emotional and social development required for partnership and parenting, facing elevated risks of violence and long-term trauma, Psychologist Mansoureh Shahnazari told the outlet.
Iran’s Statistical Center recorded around 25,900 marriages of girls under 15 in 2022, down from roughly 32,000 in 2021 – figures that researchers say illustrate inconsistencies in government reporting.
Legal specialist Sahar Khajehvand described the platform’s model as “marketing child marriage” and said it contradicts constitutional commitments to stable family formation based on maturity rather than poverty or coercion.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has repeatedly promoted policies encouraging higher birth rates and earlier marriages, with a target population of 150 million by 2050.
In line with these priorities, parliament passed the Rejuvenation of the Population and Protection of the Family law in 2021, imposing penalties for actions deemed to oppose childbearing or delay marriage, effectively placing demographic goals above safeguards for children.
With tens of thousands of child marriages recorded annually and a platform openly enrolling minors under an official banner, campaigners say only a clear ban on under-18 marriage will prevent online tools from further normalizing the practice.
