The Meta Oversight Board on Tuesday upheld Meta’s decision to take down an Instagram post showing an Iranian beautician preparing a 14-year-old girl for her wedding, citing a policy against the promotion of forced child marriages. The Board also urged Meta to clarify in its policy that forced marriages include any child marriage involving individuals under the age of 18.
The post in question dates back to January 2024, when a user posted a video on Instagram, in which a beautician prepares a 14-year-old girl for her wedding and discusses the priority of marriage over education. The video attracted 10.9 million views and was reported by 203 users. Initially, Meta found no policy violations, but after a second review by experts, the post was removed for violating its Human Exploitation policy. Meta later referred the case to the Oversight Board.
The Board upheld Meta’s decision to remove the content but disagreed with its reasoning. Meta had initially removed the video under its Human Exploitation policy, which aims to eliminate all forms of “human exploitation” but does not explicitly ban child marriage. The Board, however, found the video violated the Human Exploitation Community Standard rule for facilitation of child marriage stating that”[c]hild marriage, which disproportionately affects girls, is a form of forced marriage and gender-based violence and discrimination.” In accordance with its findings, the Board recommended that Meta update its policy to explicitly state that forced marriages include child marriage, defining it as involving anyone under 18 in line with international standards.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights defines child marriage as “any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age.” The rights of children are further protected through international conventions such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iran is a state party. The Convention recommends the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, however, in the context of its ratification Iran included reservations to provisions it deemed “contrary to the Islamic Sharia law.” Despite these reservations, Iran has committed to eliminating harmful practices, including child, early, and forced marriage, as well as female genital mutilation, by 2030, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 5.3. This is especially relevant after a 2023 UN Women report found that girls married before the age of 18 are more likely to earn less over their lifetime and live in poverty with their children.
Currently, Article 1041 of the Iranian Civil Code prohibits marriage before the age of “majority”, however, the age of majority is set at 9 lunar years (8 years and 9 months) for girls and 15 lunar years for boys. Records from the Iranian Statistics Center show that between 2021 and 2022, at least 27,448 marriages involving children under the age of 15 were registered.
