In regards to the difference in the age of criminal responsibility between girls and boys, I found this -
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14732254211022854
Quote -
'A Gendered Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility
Contextually, in Western states, girls have been subject to different standards than boys within justice systems, for example, regarding crimes of ‘sexuality’ (Pasko, 2017) or the provision of custodial placements within England and Wales, whereby there are no specific custodial facilities for girls and young women (Allen, 2016). However, most countries do not differentiate between boys and girls in matters of civil or criminal rights and responsibilities, including the MACR. However, within some Islamic countries, such as Iran, the gendered construction of childhood has resulted in a system of divided rights, with specific rights being granted to some children (boys) but not others (girls). By using the notion of ‘religious puberty’ as a measure of maturity, Iran, and some other Islamic countries such as Brunei Darussalam, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, enable overt discrimination against girls, because the age at which religious puberty is deemed to have been reached differs between boys and girls. The age of religious puberty is specified within the Civil Code of Iran and is considered to be the age at which a child is subject to all the rights, duties and responsibilities of an adult, including property ownership, marriage, religious duties and criminal responsibility (Hashemi, 2007). Boys in Iran are considered to have such responsibility when they are 15 lunar years old (14 years and 7 months), whereas girls are considered to have reached religious puberty a full 6 years earlier, at 9 lunar years (8 years and 9 months). The Islamic Penalties Act (2013) does not itself specify a chronological age of criminal responsibility, but effectively establishes it by reference to religious puberty, such that girls are held criminally responsible at the age of 9 lunar years, whereas boys are not deemed to have such responsibility unit they are 15 years.
The MACR in Iran thus is not delineated by the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child nor on an understanding of child development but is based on powerful religious doctrine – the interpretation of which is used to mask the commitments to the UNCRC. It is of note that 15 years old is a reasonable MACR and is above the UNCRC’s suggested minimum (UNCRC, 2019) and higher than the median age across the globe. This apparent accordance with international guidance – for boys – makes the low MACR for girls even more unacceptable. Indeed, the Concluding Observations on Iran made by the UN Committee (2016a) reiterated the need for Iran, as a matter of priority, to increase the MACR for girls and ensure that girls and boys are treated on equal terms throughout the criminal justice system. Furthermore, the Committee questioned the wide discretion given to the judiciary in interpreting and implementing Sharia, such as relating the age of marriage and the age of criminal responsibility to the notion of religious puberty, especially when there is limited justification for the specific age at which religious puberty is deemed to have been achieved.
The gendered approach to the MACR in Iran creates a 6-year disparity between the protections ascribed to boys and girls; this disparity perpetuates the perceived difference in capacity and status between girls and boys in other areas too. Setting an MACR of 9 years creates a social (symbolic) and statutory (institutionalised) construction of the girl child as being mature, responsibilised and adultified (Goldson, 2013). This image of a mature girl child can then be used to further subjugate girls to the control of men, for example, constructing girls as sexually mature – and therefore, sexually available and of an age to be married. Setting a low MACR, linked to the notion of religious puberty, does not take into account the impact of social conditions on children’s development or their ability to exercise free will. This may be particularly an issue for women and girls in Iran who face subjugation and control in so many areas of their lives (Kusha, 2002). For instance, in the legal system of the Islamic Republic of Iran the gender of the witness influences the perceived validity of the testimony. In some cases, the testimony of a woman is only used to substantiate a man’s testimony and in others, where the testimony of a woman is considered valid, the testimony of a man is deemed equivalent to the testimony of two women (Mehrpoor, 2002). This illustrates the contradictory nature of the Iranian gender ideology: on one hand, girls are deemed mature and hence responsible for their actions, yet on the other hand, when they reach the age of puberty, their rationality is questioned due to their gender.'