Iran marriage and family system

Iranian families have historically been more religious and have been organized with
regards to religious interpretations coming from Zoroastrian (ancient pre-Islamic
religion of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously) and Islam
practitioner. In such families, marriage and reproduction are of a significant value.
Parents along with their children are established in a network of kinship relations and
most issues are organized through this network. Throughout the past decades and
even before that, families had undergone major changes. Rising of divorce rate;
reduction in marriage rate; freedoms given to women and their increased participation
in social and political fields; changes in attitudes on gender issues, focusing on love
and emotions as being a primary criterion in selecting a spouse along with support
from the family and changes that have occurred among the new generation are some
of the main examples. On the other hand a simultaneous presence of these
generations, in a single family, has prepared the grounds for integration within a
family and its simpler relationships with the social environment. However, Iranian
families encounter major challenges related to women, children from the new
generation and modernization, whose changes had been introduced through public
media and education.
Iranian Women
Women have long faced legal, political, economic and social challenges in Iran. Iran's
1906 constitution, written by its first parliament, promised “equal rights before the
law” for all Iranians, but it said nothing specific about women. The women gained
new rights—to vote, initiate divorce, run for office, inherit property—during the
monarchy. The legal age of marriage was also raised to 18. Women were “equally
protected”, But in practice, it gave women fewer social rights and personal liberties.
New restrictions on women’s were dress, child custody, inheritance and foreign
travel.

Marriage

The rules on marriage are the most discriminatory. A man can marry up to four
women at one time; women can only marry one husband. A woman needs a male
guardian’s consent — either from her father or paternal grandfather—to marry.
Muslim women cannot marry non-Muslim men, while Muslim men can marry Jews,
Christians. The Majles raised the age of marriage back to 13 for girls (and to 15 for
boys). In a marriage contract, women are required to be obedient to receive funds for
housing, clothes, food and furniture.

In practice: Polygamy is not common among men. Most women also do not marry
until their twenties. In 2014, the average age of marriage for women was 23, although
hundreds of girls under 13, even fewer than 10, were forcibly married by their
families. The average age for men was 28, the government reported.

Divorce

A woman could only get a divorce in court with a judge’s order, while a man could
get divorce by declaring it verbally. Women also face discrimination in divorce.
Females can only get a divorce in a court, while a man can get a divorce simply by
declaring it verbally—and not even necessarily in her presence. In 1982, judges
were empowered to grant a divorce to a woman facing “difficult and undesirable
conditions.” The Majles amended the law in 2002 to allow a woman to divorce her
husband if he was imprisoned for five or more years, mentally ill, physically abusive
or an addict.

In practice: Divorce cases often end in mutual agreement between husband and wife
in court. Women must prove that their husband is physical abusive or psychologically
unstable, if the man is unwilling to divorce. In 1992, President Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani approved a bill allowing women to claim alimony payments, if husbands
initiated a divorce. In 2014, more than 20 percent of all marriages ended in divorce.

Child Custody

Women have preferential custody over children under seven. Courts determined
whether a mother or father gets custody of children older than seven. A divorced
woman forfeits child custody if she remarries, even if her husband is dead. Divorced
women are likely to lose custody of their children, especially if they are financially
dependent on alimony.

Dress Code

All females are required to cover their hair and dress modestly from the age of
puberty. The law vaguely defined what constitutes acts against morality, and
authorities have long prosecuted hundreds of people for such acts, as well as for
consensual extramarital sex. Women face restrictions on dress and severe punishment
for violations. The Islamic Republic mandated wearing head covering, or hijab, in
public. Violators face punishments that include up to two months in prison, fines of
up to 500,000 rials and up to 74 lashes.

Fewer women in major cities wear the all-enveloping black chadors, while many
young women wear scarves that barely cover their hair. So many women started
wearing tight leggings that lawmakers summoned the interior minister in June 2014 to
question the lax enforcement of the dress code.

Nationality

Women can’t automatically transfer citizenship to children or spouses. Women have

gradually gained rights on citizenship issues involving family members. In 2019,
parliament passed a law allowing the children of women married to foreigners to
apply for Iranian citizenship. In the past, many have effectively been stateless. The
law went into effect in 2020. For 40 years, women could not pass their nationality to
foreign-born spouses or their children.

Travel

Women face restrictions on travel abroad. A woman requires a husband’s permission

to obtain a passport or travel outside the country. Husbands could choose to provide
blanket permission for his wife’s travel or require her to ask for permission for each
trip abroad. A husband could choose where the couple lives and prevent his wife from
taking certain jobs that he deemed against “family values.”

Single women over the age of 18 could obtain a passport without permission but
still required their guardian’s approval to leave the country. Women arriving at
airports would sometimes find their permission to travel abroad had been revoked by
their husband or male guardian and were prevented from boarding flights. In rare
circumstances, authorities would intervene to allow female athletes to compete abroad
over a husband’s objections.

Inheritance

Affluent families have circumvented the law by transferring the property titles before
death. In some cases, men have also bought property in the names of their wives or
children in case they die first to avoid civil code requirements. A widow only inherits
one-eighth of her husband’s estate, but a widower inherits his wife’s entire estate. A
son inherits twice as much as a daughter. Widow could not inherit land in 2009,
parliament voted to let women inherit land.