IRAN OVERVIEW OF MUSLIM FAMILY LAWS & PRACTICES (Updated as at 3 June 2020)1 Description Procedure Family Law Matters Legislative Framework Case Law Policy Practice Equality of spouses in marriage Per Article 4 of the 1979 Iran has not yet Registering a According to the Constitution:2 “All civil, penal, joined CEDAW, but permanent 2016 UNDP Is there a Constitutional provision financial, economic, proposals to ratify it marriage is Human on equality and are there administrative, cultural, have been debated mandatory; any Development exceptions? Are there specific military, political, and other at three distinct man who fails to Report, Iran ranked laws that recognise marriage as a laws and regulations must be moments in post- register his 69 on the UNDP partnership of equals i.e. are based on Islamic criteria. revolutionary marriage contract Human family laws and/or other laws This principle applies politics. The first in a Register Office Development relating to marriage and the family absolutely and generally to was during the last shall be sentenced Index, and 118 on codified or uncodified? If codified, all articles of the Constitution years of the to up to one year of the UNDP Gender what are the titles of all the as well as to all other laws presidency of imprisonment Inequality Index.10 applicable laws? If codified, do and regulations. The Hashemi (Article 645, Islamic these laws apply to all citizens determination of such Rafsanjani (1989- Penal Code). According to a irrespective of religion? If not, do compatibility is left to the 1997), as part of Registering a study conducted by these laws apply to all Muslims or fuqahah (Islamic jurists) of the drive for temporary marriage Tehran University are there different codified laws economic is optional. for UNFPA, 12% of for different sects within Islam? If ‘Reconstruction’; households were 1 Musawah’s project to map Muslim Family Laws globally began in 2016 and was led by Zainah Anwar. We would like to thank Ziba Mir-Hosseini for preparing this Iran overview table. More information on the mapping can be found on our website https://www.musawah.org/mapping-muslim-family-laws/. 2 The English text of the 1979 Constitution as Amended in 1989 is available online at http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=332330, Persian text at https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/132239 10 UNDP, “Human Development Report 2016”, Table 5, pp. 214-217, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2016_human_development_report.pdf 1 uncodified, or if codified laws do the Guardian Council.”3 the High Council of Any husband who female-headed in not sufficiently address a Cultural Revolution, fails to pay his 2011; female- particular issue, how is the issue The following provision of the in charge of the wife’s nafaqa headed households addressed e.g. what Muslim Constitution provides equality Islamic Republic’s (maintenance), in 1966 comprised school of law is applicable? Do for women “in conformity with cultural policies, while he has the 6.5%.11 these laws explicitly state gender- Islamic criteria” (The opposed financial ability, stereotypical roles between Preamble and Articles 3 (14), ratification. The subject to the wife’s Two concomitant husbands and wives e.g. the 10, 20, and 21). second moment tamkin and contradictory husband is the head of the was in April 2003, (obedience), shall legal developments household or the wife is the ● The Preamble during the be sentenced by can be detected in primary caregiver? promises to provide presidency (1997- court to from three the area of family more rights to 2005) of reformist months and one law: the Applicable CEDAW Provision women to restore Mohammad day to five months’ reinstatement of Article 16(1)(a) justice and to make Khatami, whose imprisonment men’s unilateral General Recommendation 21 up for the injustice government (Article 642, Islamic rights to divorce women suffered proposed joining Penal Code). and polygamy, and under the previous CEDAW. The attempts to protect regime. Protection of Parliament, in and compensate the family and the which reformists women. The first role of women as had a majority, began with the mothers are the main ratified the dismantling of the reasons to provide proposal, but the 1975 Family more protection to unelected Guardian Protection Law women Council rejected it (FPL) and the ● Article 3 (14) on grounds of the abolition of its requires the incompatibility of courts. This law, government to CEDAW with first enacted in provide resources for ‘Shari‘a’, and asked 1967 and amended “securing the parliament to in 1975, created multifarious rights of modify it. courts by the same all citizens, both Parliament refused name empowered women and men, to do so, and the to deal with all and providing legal bill was referred to types of family protection for all, as the unelected disputes, and 3 Established by the Constitution, the Guardian Council’s role is to ensure that laws passed by the parliament (majiles) are in line with Islamic criteria. It is composed of six Islamic jurists (faqih) appointed by the Supreme Leader and six lay jurists elected by parliament from among those nominated by the Head of the Judiciary (himself appointed by the Leader), for a period of five years (Articles 72, 91, 94 of the Constitution). 11 University of Tehran, Female-Headed Households Report, UNFPA Islamic Republic of Iran, 2017. https://iran.unfpa.org/en/publications/female-headed-households-report 2 well as the equality Expediency introduced of all before the law.” Council,8 whose procedural reforms ● Article 10 provides duty is to that placed men for the protection of adjudicate in such and women on the family as “the cases; but in this equal terms with fundamental unit of case they failed to respect to access Islamic society”, and act. The third to divorce and child requires all laws, moment was in custody. In regulations, and April 2009, in the February 1979, pertinent programs run-up to the barely two weeks to facilitate the disputed election after the collapse of formation of a family, that would return the Pahlavi regime, and to safeguard its President a directive from sanctity and the Mahmoud Ayatollah stability of family Ahmadinejad for a Khomeini’s office relations on the basis second term. Forty- declared the FPL to of the law and the two women’s be ‘non-Islamic’ ethics of Islam.” groups and 700 and announced a ● Article 20 entitles “all individuals, return to the citizens of the including both ‘Shari‘a’ provisions country, both men secularist feminists of marriage and and women, equally and religious divorce as reflected to enjoy the women from the in the Civil Code protection of the law reformist parties, articles. and to enjoy all came together to human, political, form a ‘Women’s The second economic, and Convergence’. development, cultural rights in Without supporting which began in conformity with any individual 1982, is still Islamic criteria.” candidate, the unfolding. Its latest ● Article 21 requires Convergence manifestation is the the government to posed pointed 2013 Family provide social questions to the Protection Law welfare and protect field. They raised (FPL), which women albeit “in two specific establishes Family conformity with demands: first, Courts authorized Islamic criteria”, with ratification of to deal with all the aim of CEDAW; and types of family 8 Its full name in Persian is Majma'-e Taškhīs-e Maslahat-e Nezām, which is translated as the Council of Discernment of the Interests of the System; formed in 1988 at the time of amendment of the Constitution, its members are appointed by the Supreme Leader for five years. 3 accomplishing the second, revision of disputes (Article 2). following goals: “1. Articles 19, 20, 21 Each Family Court create a favorable and 115 of the consists of a male environment for the Iranian constitution, principal judge and growth of woman’s which enshrine two advisory legal personality and the gender experts, one of restoration of her discrimination. whom must be a rights, both material They put the woman: her and intellectual; 2. candidates on the presence is the protection of spot to respond, required in all mothers, particularly using the press and hearings, and she during pregnancy new media. submits her written and childbearing, the Women’s demand opinion on the case protection of children for legal equality to the court. The without guardians; 3. became a central principal judge establishing issue in the should take her competent courts to campaign season.9 opinion into protect and preserve consideration in the family; 4. the issuing the court protection of special judgement. If he insurance for chooses not to do widows, and aged so, he is required women and women to state his reasons without support; 5. in the judgement. the awarding of (Article 2. Note) guardianship of children to worthy mothers, in order to protect the interests of the children, in the absence of a legal guardian.” Matters relating to family and personal status were first codified between 1928 and 9 Leila Alikarami, CEDAW and the Quest of Iranian Women for Equality, OpenDemocracy, December 18, 2004 https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/leila-alikarami/cedaw- and-quest-of-iranian-women-for-gender-equality; Ziba Mir-Hosseini, ‘Broken Taboos in Post-Election Iran’, Middle East Report Online, December 17, 2009, http://www.merip.org/mero/mero121709 4 1935 in the Civil Code, as part of the reforms of the judiciary during the reign of Reza Shah (1925-41), the first Pahlavi monarch.4 Articles 1034 to 1206 dealing with marriage, its dissolution and family relations are in accordance with the majority opinion in the Shi‘a Ja’fari school.