Best age for marrying is 16 to 18 for girls said Ahmadinejad
Iran: Iranian newspapers reported on Sunday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad President of Iran said the best age for girls to get married is between 16 and 18. Iran’s parliament in 2004 raised the legally acceptable age of marriage for girls to from nine to fifteen.
The best age for marriage is between 16 to 18 for girls and 19 to 21 for boys, the Mardomsalari newspaper quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. Analysts sais such announcements could be part of the government’s efforts to gain support among young voters.
Ahmadinejad’s popularity has been harmed since the disputed 2009 presidential vote, which the opposition says was rigged to secure his re-election. The authorities deny this. The vote and its aftermath created a rift within the ruling hardline elite.
An Iranian political analyst who asked not to be named said, “We have a parliamentary election in 2012 and hardliners want to win young people’s votes in order to win the assembly vote”.
Some hardline clerics and lawmakers have warned over increasing rates of divorce. A prominent hardline cleric grand ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi on Friday said “Divorces are increasing, high prices have caused problems for ordinary Iranians.”
Over its disputed nuclear work Iran has been hit by foreign sanctions, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. The authorities have been encouraging marriage as a way to fight what they call the spread of immorality among youth. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
