Recognizing marriage as the only acceptable forum for sex could also lead teens to take matters into their own hands and initiate marriage before the age of 18. Previously, the accepted lifestyle was to avoid interactions with the opposite sex and to have sex with the legitimate husband or wife, mainly for the purpose of conceiving children. New forms of communication now facilitate contact between the different sexes and open the way to forbidden and previously impossible interactions. Although dating is prevalent among the younger generation, the social and legal consequences of an unwanted pregnancy increase the cost of premarital sex. Thus, some teenagers may choose to marry the person they love early in order to fulfill their sexual desires while explaining their autonomy. Young love sometimes leads to running away from home. In the Kurdish regions of West Azerbaijan province, the girl`s family sometimes brings her and her husband back to the family. In northeastern Razavi Khorasan province, some families even provide housing and furniture to help them start in life after such a runaway (Ahmady 2017: 55). This new practice is unusual, as runaways have always been considered unacceptable. He changed the rules and turned runaway marriage into a social norm with which teenagers control their lives. Mina`s memories of the war are dark and sad. In addition to the violence and carnage she witnessed, she missed her two boys terribly. Fortunately, her sister helped her through this difficult time.

«I left my boys with my younger sister, who was now married,» she says. «You know, if I had to pay for two people, I would pay her for six, she took such good care of my boys.» Approaching early marriage from a rights-based perspective, the international human rights system has set 18 as the minimum age for marriage, recognized early marriage as a violation of many human rights, and classified early marriage as slavery, calling into question children`s ability to consent to marriage. It advocates legal reforms to achieve the goal of abolishing child marriage. The human rights framework is indeed one of the strategies to bring justice to the disadvantaged. However, it could «lock them into fixed identities defined by their violations, rather than liberating them from those identities in a world of equals» (Abu-Lughod 2013:175). It promotes a strong definition of justice and ignores the voices of those demanding justice. The current approach to human rights raises several problems. First, various causes of early marriage call into question the validity of categorizing such marriage as slavery. Young people in Iran may choose to marry in order to gain greater social status, satisfy their sexual needs, conform to their religious beliefs, flee a dysfunctional family, etc. Their social experiences have shaped their free will, and denying them such a choice is as paternalistic as forcing them to marry. Second, the regulation of child marriage in Iran is influenced by a web of social, legal and religious norms as well as political and historical frameworks. In practice, legal reform is not always desirable or effective.

A strategy should be developed to integrate social realities into legal efforts. Marriage in Iran has religious, traditional, political, historical, social and economic aspects. Proposing a uniform minimum age for marriage is a difficult task. If significant sections of society do not accept the law or find it contradicts their core values, there is a good chance that the law will become obsolete or lead to a backlash (Calavita 2010: 118-19). This does not mean that the law must follow the status quo and cannot be the agent of change. But for such a change to take place, the legal movement would have to «collaborate with a social movement that challenges and transforms social realities on the ground» (ibid.: 146). To return to the issue of early marriage, effective legislation is only possible if it is accompanied by a deeper knowledge of the phenomenon in the society concerned. The first step in gaining this knowledge is to examine the causes of early marriage.10 The main causes in Iran are discussed below.

Before considering the causes, it should be noted that the decision leading to early marriage is made either by the persons entering into marriage or by their families, and the cause is the fundamental condition that drives the family or individual to make such decisions. No distinction is made according to the authority making this decision. The author believes that all causes can affect all agents, albeit to varying degrees. The basic idea is that early marriage is a complex social structure involving many actors and many factors. Early marriage can also be a way to escape a strict family. In the absence of an effective child protection service, an adolescent girl may choose marriage as a method of survival. In a study conducted in Khuzestan with girls married before the age of 18, most participants had dysfunctional families with socioeconomic difficulties (ibid.: 4). It could be argued that conditions such as poverty or strict sexual norms could lead someone to opt for marriage as a form of facilitation. and that children should therefore not be able to: consent to marriage, regardless of age.

However, these conditions are not limited to childhood. If sexual activity is prohibited before marriage, age does not matter. A 25-year-old can choose marriage as a solution to their sexual needs just as much as a 16-year-old. Moreover, it is true that the social construction of gender and expected gender norms influence the capacity to act. A young girl may decide to marry because of her socialization, which promotes the image of the «good wife/mother» as the perfect role for women. But the subtle existence of patriarchal norms does not automatically deprive a woman of any capacity to act. This argument has gained ground even within various branches of government. Former Vice President for Women`s Affairs Shahindokht Mollaverdi has often stressed the need to change the legal age of marriage (Hashemi 2015: 16).

This desire for legislative reform raises questions about the consequences of a change in the law and its effectiveness.