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In Azerbaijani regions not attending school is a common thing for girls; this is a serious social problem, stated Novella Jafaroglu, the head of the "Women's rights" society, during a roundtable discussion on the results of the project on combatting early marriage in the country, reports the Azeri news agency "Turan."

She noted that they have carried out monitoring in Astara, Lankaran, Salyan and Shirvan in the frameworks of the project.

Novella Jafaroglu stated that there are no official statistics on early marriages, that’s why it is so difficult to get a complete picture. At the same time, many parents marry their underage girls by their own will. They also blamed the law enforcement agencies that ignore these facts.

If the penalty for early marriages is not increased on the legislative level, then it will be difficult to talk about positive changes in this issue, the material reads.

Roundtable participants accused the religious figures who admit the early marriage, in violation of existing laws.

As the reasons for early marriages were brought the irresponsibility of the parents, the difficult financial situation, and unemployment in the country.

The authors of the project had prepared recommendations to address this issue. They will submit it to the state agencies. One of the main proposals concerns the rise of education, increase the number of television and radio programs to combat early marriage. They also suggest creating a Council of Women, as well as comprehensive action plan to fix the problem, the material reads.