Ahmadinejad says 16 is old enough

[Tribun]

Sunday November 21 2010

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged girls to marry at the age of 16, newspapers have reported.

The president criticised the current average age of marriage of 24 to 26. The report by the state-owned Jam-e Jam quoted Ahmadinejad as saying: "We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17."

Other newspapers quoted the president as putting the best ages for girls to marry at 17 or 18.

There was no explanation on the discrepancy, which is typical Iranian media.

Ahmadinejad has long sought an increase of population, rejecting family planning as a Western import. Critics say the policy will only exacerbate to the current 9% official unemployment rate.

Press Association

The fun thing is that the only thing he'll do with this is, to actually achive the exact opposite. The rate is somewhere around 1.65 and falling, and about 80 percent of married women in Iran use contraception (higher than many other countries).

[hongi]

rejecting family planning as a Western import.

I wonder how he spun that, considering that the family planning policy was encouraged by the Iranian government.

[Thanas]

16 is pretty much the age you can get married in some European countries anyway, so this allows Iran to neatly sidestep criticism from the west (if they care at all). Of course, the difference is that Iran wants it to be commonplace, whereas it is an exception in Europe.

[FTeik]

In their minds it might have some benefits to their kind of thinking.

If the girls are younger, they are less mentally stable to stand up to their husbands and be much of a threat to the patriarchic society.
Young women sitting at home with babies are less likely to be in need of a job.
The womens level of education will be reduced, reducing their threat-potential and also making it easier to influence and radicalise them.
The young families will also be dependent on subsidies from the state. As long as the dole flows, they won't be tempted to rebel.
People responsible for a family would be less likely to rebel.
Lots of new supporters for the regime and cannon-fodder, not to mention more believers in the Shiite-way of Islam.

[xerex]

well its better than Saudi Arabia which has no minimum age.

[LittleLostRobot]

well its better than Saudi Arabia which has no minimum age.

Just like we're a lot better off than the people in the Wild West.

The fact that there is some regulation of something does not mean that the regulation is better than the lack therof. You could say that a police state is bad, but that anarchy is little better. It's a split between two extremes. To have a decent society with standards one needs to set standards by what the community sees as the "right" and "wrong". In some cultures 16 is very much so an adult, given when most education stops in some countries.

[Straha]

Nothing to see here folks. This is the personal opinion of one man who just cannot shut his yap, not an actual policy change. Moreover the Iranian age of marriage consent is 14 for girls (maybe 15? I may be remembering wrong.) All Mahmoud is saying that he thinks it'd be pretty keen if people got married younger.

In their minds it might have some benefits to their kind of thinking.

If the girls are younger, they are less mentally stable to stand up to their husbands and be much of a threat to the patriarchic society.
Young women sitting at home with babies are less likely to be in need of a job.
The womens level of education will be reduced, reducing their threat-potential and also making it easier to influence and radicalise them.
The young families will also be dependent on subsidies from the state. As long as the dole flows, they won't be tempted to rebel.
People responsible for a family would be less likely to rebel.
Lots of new supporters for the regime and cannon-fodder, not to mention more believers in the Shiite-way of Islam.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why you should know what you are talking about before you say anything.

Ignoring Thanas' previous, and very apt, point regarding this not being in anyway radical when compared to Europe or 'the West', here's why you are wrong (assuming that this is some sort of policy shift put in place by the government):

On Women's Rights: Women's Rights in Iran are viewed as a very big deal. If you read native Iranian literature there is a constant refrain that Iranian women have it far better than anyone else in the Middle East. It is, in fact, a religious obligation according to many Marj-e Taqlids for parents to ensure that their daughters are as educated as can be. This is why there are more women in Iranian universities than men, and more female graduates from Iranian universities than men. In fact I have been told, but have been simply too uninterested to check, that Iran has a higher Female:Male university graduate ratio than the US and most European countries.

If you want to discuss issues like female employment and representation in government, that's a different story BUT not one that will
be changed by Ahmadinejad saying people should marry younger nor one that would be changed by a policy change like this.


On 'the dole': The Iranian government is bankrupt and is trying to trim down its handouts and subsidies as much as possible. Look up the gas riots that took place in Iran in the Spring 08 and then the Winter of 08-09. The last thing that the government wants is to be forced to increase spending right now.

The simplest explanation for this is that Ahmadinejad is a devoutly religious man with, to summarize roughly, traditionalist and millenial ideas on social policy.
As to reasons why this would be happening if it is a shift in government policy (rar!):
I would hazard a guess that the major reason would be economic. Two thirds of the Iranian population is under thirty years old, half of the Iranian population was born in a population boom that began in 1979 and ended, roughly, in 1985/86. However the current Iranian birthrate has been well under replacement rate for two decades (oscillating between 1.5 and 1.8 per woman). This is a recipe for economic disaster for a huge number of reasons. The government would probably want to simply save the country.

Also, if you really need a back room conspiracy theory I'll give you a simple one: The Iranian government is scared shitless of the growing political power of the twenty year olds that are becoming politically active now. Just look at the 09 Election for why this is a valid fear. They might want to have another powerful bloc to play them off against in a decade or two.