interpretation of modesty in public can be sentenced to up to two months in prison or receive a fine.39 40 Child marriage continues to be permitted under Iranian law. The legal minimum age for marriage is 13 years old for girls and 15 years old for boys.41 However, children who have reached puberty can marry with parental consent and court approval.42 The predefined age of puberty under the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the age of majority, is 9 lunar years for girls and 15 lunar years for boys.43 Article 50 of the Family Protection Act, which was adopted in 2012, has criminalised “the marriage of men with girls younger than the age of 13” without prior consent of the child’s legal caretaker and the approval of the family court.44 Between March 2018 and March 2019, the National Organisation for Civil Registration reported over 30,000 marriages involving girls between the ages of 10 and 14, including 209 marriages involving girls under the age of 11. 45 46 However, the number is likely to be higher as many child marriages are unregistered.47 In January 2020, the Secretary General highlighted that “the Government [of the Islamic Republic of Iran] expressed the view that setting the minimum age of marriage regardless of the cultural context would increase unregistered marriages.”48 In 2016, the Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that the legal age of marriage in the Islamic Republic of Iran “gravely violated rights under the Convention [on the Rights of the Child] and placed children, in particular girls, at risk of forced, early and temporary marriages, with irreversible consequences on their physical and mental health and development.”49 The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran noted during its 2019 Universal Period Review that bills already drafted and currently going through the adoption process dealt with the prohibition of early marriage, although without specifying the age limitation. The Government 39 Ibid. Typically dress codes for women working in the government are stricter. Government jobs could impose a strict dress code that could force women to wear a specific type of head covering whether it be a hijab or a chador. They could also ban women from wearing jeans or trainers. 41 Article 1041 of the Civil Code as amended up until December 2000, NGO Impact Iran Coalition, Joint Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19809_E.pdf 42 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf 43 Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, paras. 27–28 https://undocs.org/en/CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 44 https://shenasname.ir/subjects/family/1470 45 Report of the Secretary General, Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2020, para 37 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IR/Report_of_the_SecretaryGeneral_on_the_situation_of_human_rights_in_the_Islamic_Republic_of_IranA4320.pdf 46 See www.sabteahval.ir/avej/tab-1499.aspx (in Farsi) 47 Report of the Secretary General, Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2020, para 37 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IR/Report_of_the_SecretaryGeneral_on_the_situation_of_human_rights_in_the_Islamic_Republic_of_IranA4320.pdf 48 Ibid. 49 CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, para. 27-28 https://undocs.org/en/CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 40 5