IRGC profits from sex trafficking of minors: Watchdog group

A researcher argues that Iran’s sanctioning of so-called “temporary marriage” creates opportunities for trafficking and exploitation.

By World Israel News Staff

A watchdog group is raising concerns that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and several European countries, is benefiting financially from cross-border sex trafficking facilitated by Iran’s sanctioning of so-called “temporary marriages.”

Iran is one of the few countries where the practice remains legal. Known as nikah mut’ah in Arabic and sigheh in Farsi, it allows a man and a woman to enter into a marriage for a predetermined period in exchange for a payment, framed as a dowry, to the bride.

The arrangement can last as little as several hours and ends automatically when the agreed period expires, without requiring a formal Islamic divorce.

Temporary marriage is prohibited by most Islamic legal authorities outside the Shi’ite tradition, and it is widely viewed as facilitating commercial sexual exploitation. Human rights advocates have raised particular concerns about the vulnerability of women and girls who may be coerced into such arrangements.

Iran’s laws also permit girls as young as 13 to enter into temporary marriages, while younger girls may be permitted to do so with parental consent.

Ella Rosenberg, a senior research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs (JCFA) and a member of Forum Dvorah, an organization in Israel dedicated to women in national security and foreign policy, told The Jerusalem Post that Iran is a major destination in the Islamic world for the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation.

Rosenberg also pointed to reports by human rights organizations, including the IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), alleging that IRGC commanders accepted bribes to allow trafficking victims to cross borders.

According to Rosenberg, such reports support concerns that cross-border trafficking on this scale would be difficult to sustain without the involvement or acquiescence of powerful security officials. The IRGC plays a major role in Iran’s security apparatus, while state security bodies oversee border controls and checkpoints.