Why is there no official statistics of early marriage ?

Baku/15.11.13/Turan : The growth of early marriages in Azerbaijan is a concern , and this is not reflected in official statistics, Turan was told by the  head of the Research Center of the "East -West", Arastun Orujlu. According to women's rights organizations, over the past year, the number of early marriages has increased by 21,000,  Orujlu said . The reason for the lack of official statistics is that for every such fact a lawsuit should be filed. However, this does not happen.

This very important question remains outside the attention of the authorities, who close  their eyes and the registration of such marriages by  religious figures.

The clergymen the powers of state agencies, and at the same time, justify illegal marriages.

    In turn , the public does not condemn such marriages , and the believers quite openly promote them.

The head of the Women's Crisis Center, Matanat Azizova,  also note the lack of official information about early marriages. Even the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not have the statistics of such marriages. Often these marriages are not registered  not  in mosques, but by  mullahs and self-taught.

Children in such families are often born out of medical facilities, and are not registered in the Ministry of Health.

According to Azizova , this problem can not be solved only by educational measures. She believes it is  necessary to establish harsher penalties for parents for marrying their daughters at an early age,  "religious figures"  register such marriages.

The head of the NGO "Clean World" Mehriban Zeynalova noted that the lack of official statistics does not allow to assess the real situation. She believes  that penalties for early marriage should be toughened, and enlightenment among population should increase. —05B06--