This includes any type of coercion or inducement of a child to engage in unlawful sexual
activity. Furthermore, child marriage is regarded by human rights activists as conducive to (if not
a form of) sexual abuse.14 A recent law on child adoption, passed in 2013, legalised the marriage
between a father and his adopted daughter.15 Such a marriage would be prohibited unless a court,
after consulting with the State Welfare Organisation, rules that such a marriage is in the best
interest of the child, though the conditions for this determination are not made clear.16
The Iranian legislation prohibits employment of children younger than 15 years old. Employers
are allowed to hire children above the age of 15 as juvenile laborers or young workers as long as
these adolescents undergo medical exams carried by the Ministry of Labour. However, such
medical exams are to be retaken regularly and juveniles are prohibited from being employed in
hazardous professions or performing hard labour. Despite these provisions, businesses with
fewer than 10 employees are exempt from certain legal obligations such as maximum hour
requirements, pay disability benefit for workplace injuries or mandatory regular medical testing
for juvenile laborers. Such exemptions have been considered by the Committee on the Rights of
the Child as increasing the risk of economic exploitation of children. Additionally, Iranian child
labour law does not cover domestic work and permits children to work in agriculture and in some
small businesses from the age of 12.
Article 1179 of the Civil Code allows for the ‘reasonable punishment of children’, which may
include corporal punishment in the context of child-rearing and education.17 The previous
version of the Islamic Penal Code (as amended up to 2012) provided for the right of parents or
guardians to impose corporal punishment on their children under Article 49 and 59. Such
provisions now appear under Article 158 of the 2013 Islamic Penal Code, which allows for the
chastisement of children by parents or guardians within customary and religious limits. 18
Article 7 of the previous Law on Protection of Children (2002), prohibited “all kinds of abuse
leading to physical, mental or moral damage to the child endangering their physical or mental
health” (Article 2) but excluded from this protection actions taken under Article 59 of the Penal
Code and Article 1179 of the Civil Code (Article 7).19 On June 7, 2020, the Guardian Council
approved a bill amending the Law on Protection of Children which, while including new
penalties for certain acts that harm children and adolescents’ physical and mental health, does
not explicitly prohibit corporal punishment on children.20 Iranian law therefore remains in
violation of international law as the Human Rights Committee has stated that the prohibition
14
Persia Education Foundation
Law on the protection of children and adolescents without guardians or with irresponsible ones, Article 26, (2013)
16
Impact Iran submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, review of the 3rd and 4th periodic reports of the Islamic
Republic of Iran
17
Article 1179 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran as referenced by the Committee on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, 14 March 2016
18
Islamic Penal Code (2013), English translation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
19
Law on Protection of Children and Adolescents (2002) as referenced in “Country Report of Iran”, Global Initiative to End All
Corporal Punishment of Children
20
Human Rights Watch
15
3