Marriage of underage girls Physical and psychological abuse of children Violation of women's rights

Adam and Eve, Expelled From Google’s Garden

On October 9, Google removed Adam and Eve, an Iranian matchmaking app that listed girls as young as 13 as prospective wives, for violating its policies. At home, the app holds a state licence and has been promoted on state television. On Google Play, it was rated suitable for everyone.

By Delirium Islamicum Published October 25, 2026

Satirical cartoon: in an Iranian government office, a civil servant stamps an official licence on a giant smartphone showing a matchmaking app, while a state television cameraman films and a cleric applauds; beside the desk, a small empty school chair holds a school backpack and a white wedding veil. — Licensed by the ministry, applauded on state TV, removed by Google.

Rated for everyone

On October 8, three days before the International Day of the Girl Child, the rights group HRA published its investigation into Adam and Eve. On October 5, a search for girls aged 13 to 17 hit the platform's display limit of 100 profiles; the same search for boys returned 12, eleven of them aged 17. The registration form accepted a 12-year-old's year of birth without a warning, parents may create profiles for their children, and no account was needed to browse them. In September, the app announced the wedding of a 16-year-old bride and a 23-year-old groom who had met through it.

The app's own terms require women to be over 15 and men over 18; its search filter starts at 13. On Google Play, where it had passed 100,000 downloads, it was rated "Everyone", PEGI 3. After a joint letter from 24 organisations, Google pulled it and Meta removed its promotional accounts and links to underage marriage services.

"The app was removed from Google Play on October 9 for violating our policies."— A Google spokesperson, quoted by HRANA

Licensed by the ministry, advertised on state TV

Adam and Eve is no clandestine site. It holds a licence under Article 37 of the 2021 Law on the Protection of the Family and Youthful Population, which tasks the Ministry of Sports and Youth and the Islamic Propagation Organization with licensing matchmaking services. Licensed platforms report their users' ages to the ministry every month. There was one in 2020, 33 in 2023 and more than 200 by early 2025, according to official figures cited by HRA. In May 2025, a presenter on state television urged "all single girls and boys" to sign up.

Business followed. The 2025 budget set aside some 180 billion tomans for NGOs promoting youth marriage, and a former employee told Filterwatch that the app received about 17 billion tomans in March 2025 from registrations and marriages in its under-20 and under-15 groups. Its director says the platform simply applies the legal age.

Thirteen, or younger with a judge

He has a point. Article 1041 of the Civil Code sets the marriage age at 13 for girls and 15 for boys, and allows younger marriages with the guardian's consent and a court's approval.

"Iran therefore has no absolute minimum age below which marriage is prohibited."— HRA, October 8

Iran's Statistical Center recorded about 25,900 marriages of girls under 15 in 2022, The Jerusalem Post reports. In 2025, nearly 17% of the profiles posted on Adam and Eve over six months belonged to minors, the youngest aged 11, according to Filterwatch. Births are harder to count: in September 2024, Iran International reported that around 1,500 babies had been born to mothers under 15 the previous year, up from 364 in 2020, and that the Civil Registration Organization had taken those figures off its website.

It took Google's terms of service, not the laws of the Islamic Republic, to treat a 13-year-old girl as a child.

Verses and hadiths related to this article

“As for your women past the age of menstruation, in case you do not know, their waiting period is three months, and those who have not menstruated as well. As for those who are pregnant, their waiting period ends with delivery. And whoever is mindful of Allah, He will make their matters easy for them.”

“'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.”

“Marry off the free singles among you, as well as the righteous of your bondmen and bondwomen. If they are poor, Allah will enrich them out of His bounty. For Allah is All-Bountiful, All-Knowing.”

Narrated `Abdullah: We were with the Prophet (ﷺ) while we were young and had no wealth. So Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry, because it helps him lower his gaze and guard his modesty (i.e. his private parts from committing illegal sexual intercourse etc.), and whoever is not able to marry, should fast, as fasting diminishes his sexual power."

“Narrated Ma'qil ibn Yasar: A man came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said: I have found a woman of rank and beauty, but she does not give birth to children. Should I marry her? He said: No. He came again to him, but he prohibited him. He came to him third time, and he (the Prophet) said: Marry women who are loving and very prolific, for I shall outnumber the peoples by you.”