A Qualitative Study of the Context and Consequences of Child Marriage in Rural Areas of West Azerbaijan Province

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Urmia, Urmia, Iran (Corresponding Author).

Abstract

Abstract
Child marriage is a socio-cultural phenomenon that affects the lives of girls in some parts of the country and leads to many individual and social problems and harms. The present study aims to investigate the context and consequences of the phenomenon of child marriage in rural society. The research method is qualitative and a semi-structured in-depth interview technique was used to collect data. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted using purposive sampling with 38 women who had experience of child marriage under the age of 15. Data analysis was based on grounded theory and the interview text was analyzed using theoretical coding. The findings of the study showed that the causal and underlying conditions that are effective in the spread of the phenomenon of child marriage in villages include; poverty, cultural and social conditions, use of cyberspace, unstable family, gender-based attitudes, local customs and traditions regarding marriage, and rapid physical growth. In addition, this phenomenon has had various negative consequences from the perspective of the interviewees, including; experiencing violence by child spouses, lack of decision-making power and family interference, escape from cohabitation and increased divorce rates, inability to fulfill marital responsibilities, inability to maintain health, and an increase in the number of children of divorce resulting from unwanted pregnancies and couples’ disinterest. 
Keywords: Marriage, Child Marriage, Rural Areas, West Azerbaijan Province.
 
1. Introduction
One of the phenomena that always brings challenges is the category of “Child marriage”. “Child marriage” regardless of gender, is used for the marriage of girls and boys, but often due to issues arising from ethnic-local traditions, gender attitudes, patriarchy and economic problems of the family, most of this type of marriage is for girls who They are forced to marry adult men at a young age (Hajilo et al., 2021: 107). In Iran, there is also a high number of child marriages. Internal surveys show that in general one out of every 10 girls under the age of 18 and in rural areas one out of every 5 girls gives in to child marriage (Azimi, 2020). According to the “social and cultural situation of Iran” statistics of Iran Statistics Center in the winter of 1401, the number of 2 marriages of boys and 6227 marriages of girls under 15 years of age were recorded (Iran Statistics Center, 2022). In West Azarbaijan province, most of these marriages are in rural areas, and in some rural areas of West Azarbaijan province (such as: Qatur in Khoi County, Kohsar in Selmas County and Qapchag village in Chaharbarj County), It has become a social problem. Therefore, despite the remarkable statistics in the field of early marriage of rural girls, the investigation of the above issue is of particular importance and necessity and requires theoretical and experimental reflections at the academic level. Therefore, the current research tries to answer this basic question, what are the causal mechanisms and causal conditions affecting the formation of the phenomenon of children of spouses from the perspective of the children of spouses (self-interpretation)? And what are the consequences of girls marrying in childhood from their own point of view?
 
2. Materials and Methods
The present research is of an applied-developmental type in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical and in-depth in terms of nature and method. Library and field studies were used to collect data. The philosophical foundation of the research is based on qualitative methods, of which the grounded theory method was chosen. The spatial scope of this study is the villages of Qatur district of Khoy county, Koohsar District of Salmas County, and the Ccentral district of Chaharborj county located in West Azerbaijan province. Demographically, the participants include women and mothers who married under the age of 15 and had the lived experience of child-wife. Although the people interviewed were mostly between the ages of 18 and 40 at the time of the interview, all of them were married at the age of 15 or younger. A purposive method with a theoretical sequential method was used to select the sample. Therefore, the required data was obtained in the field using semi-structured interviews with 38 target households. Data analysis was performed using the Strauss and Corbin method simultaneously with data collection.
 
3. Data
The required data was obtained in the field using semi-structured interviews with 38 households. In order to achieve the validity of the general and initial interview questions, the opinions of university professors and some researchers in this field were used, and during the interview, more detailed questions were asked based on the interviewees’ answers. To ensure the reliability of the research data, the method of repeated study, data comparison, summarization, and classification of information without making any changes to the data was used.
 
4. Discussion
Examining the personal characteristics of the respondents showed that 100 percent of the respondents of this research are women and mothers who have experienced the phenomenon of child marriage and got married at the age of 15 or less. In terms of employment, 39.5% are housewives and in other words unemployed, 30% are in service jobs (tailoring, hairdressing, selling, etc.), 10% are in handicrafts (carpet weaving, clothing weaving, etc.). 20% of students and only 4 people, equivalent to 10.5%, are also working in government jobs. In terms of income, apart from a few people who were employed in education, the other respondents did not have any fixed income and often relied on their families and spouses. Then, using the grounded theory qualitative method, it was necessary to collect data and information, and after collecting the information, the coding process was started, and open and axial coding was used for coding. The open coding of the interviews led to the identification of a large number of general concepts, and the central coding was given in the form of 18 main categories in which the causal conditions, background conditions, intervention conditions, strategy and consequences were specified.
 
5. Conclusion
The results of the research regarding the first question showed that the existence of poverty in rural households, cultural and social poverty in society, the use of cyberspace by girls and boys and the ease of communicating with the opposite sex, the existence of unstable families and girls’ attempts to escape from it, gender-based attitudes, attention to and adherence to local customs and traditions, and the rapid physical growth of girls are the most important causal mechanisms and causal conditions affecting the spread of the phenomenon of child marriage in rural areas of West Azerbaijan province. Similarly, the results regarding the second question showed that the promotion of child marriage in the studied villages has various consequences such as; 1) experiencing violence by child spouses, 2) lack of decision-making power and interference of families in the lives of couples and the growth and strengthening of differences between them, an increase in premature pregnancies, 3) escaping from cohabitation and an increase in the divorce rate, promoting and strengthening the culture of cheating on one’s spouse, 4) inability to fulfill marital responsibilities, 5) inability to maintain personal health, 6) an increase in the number of children of divorce resulting from unwanted pregnancies, etc.

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Main Subjects

References

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Two Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Sociological Research
Volume 14, Issue 26
September 2025
Pages 153-178

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