Early marriages still remain a problem

Roundtable on the results of the project to combat early marriage was held on Wednesday by the Women's Rights Society. The head of the Society, Novella Jafaroglu, reported that within the project monitoring was  conducted in Astara, Lankaran, Salyan and Shirvan. According to her, in these areas  it is common that girls do not go to schools, which is a serious social problem.

There is not official statistics on early marriages, therefore it is difficult to get a complete picture. At the same time , many parents marry underage girls. The participants also  condemned the law enforcement agencies that ignore these facts.

If the legislation  does not toughen penalties for early marriage, then it will be difficult to  talk about  positive changes.

Participants of the roundtable accused religious leaders who conclude early marriages in violation of existing laws.

As reasons for early marriages were called irresponsible parents, a difficult financial situation,  and unemployment in the regions  of the country.

Authors of the project prepared ??recommendations to address the problem, and will submit it to state agencies. One of the main proposals  is to strengthen  enlightenment,  and increase  the number of programs on  TV and radio on fight against early marriage.
 It is also proposed to create the Council of Women , as well as comprehensive action plan to address the problem.

The project is  funded by the Canadian Embassy in Turkey. -05C04-