Iran dating marriage

Protected under Iranian law, the practice is leading to broken families and a generation of children lacking prospects or perspective.Leyla was 17 years old when she was married off by her parents in exchange for goats.She can still remember how she had been beaten up by her father before she was taken to the wedding ceremony.Leyla comes from a village near Esfarayen in the northeast of Iran, and her story is not uncommon for poor young girls from rural and tribal areas in the Islamic Republic.Majid Abhari, a sociologist at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, told DW that most unregistered marriages in Iran take place in border provinces like Sistan and Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Kurdistan as well as in North and South Khorasan.About the social consequences of the phenomenon, Abhari said: "Due to huge age differences, couples in such marriages are usually sexually incompatible and it often results in extramarital affairs. Child marriage also makes girls prone to sexually transmitted diseases and sexual infections.But there are also those who know that modern love--even under a repressive regime--will find a way.

Such unions are said to date back to the time of Muhammad, who recommended them for soldiers, presumably so the men could satisfy their sexual needs within the bounds of Muslim law.But now sigheh sites like and nikahmarriage.i12are springing up, offering dating advice and profiles of singles.Opinions on sigheh differ, with some Iranians saying prostitutes use it to dodge the law.She said her husband often hit her and refused to work."I am working sporadically as a tailor at home and sometimes I go cleaning," she said.