TEHRAN, IRAN— Since the 1979 revolution in Iran, the status of women has been on a steady decline. In the cleric led Islamic Republic, women are not valued as equal to men. They earn less than men, have fewer rights under the Islamic law, and need permission from their husbands or fathers to leave the country or apply for a passport. Even in Islamic courts, the testimony of a woman is viewed as being less than the testimony of a man.
Spousal abuse in which husbands physically or emotionally abuse their wives is common in Iran. In these situations, the woman has little or no recourse against her husband. The Islamic family law favors the husband in terms of distribution of martial property as well as the custody of minor children. Often divorce is granted in a matter of minutes by appearing before a Islamic cleric who would quickly severe the bounds of marriage, leaving the woman with little or no spousal support.
The Islamic law allows children to be married. It is estimated that there are more than 950,000 child brides in Iran. The legal age for marriage in the Islamic Republic is 9 (for girls) and 13 (for boys). The young brides are often sold into marriage by their poor parents and the husband in most cases is much older than 13. Often, these chid brides end up getting pregnant and will have children of their own well before their teens. This Islamic practice is considered a form of child abuse in the West and is a violation of the international Convention on the Rights of Children.
According to Mohammad Bonyazadeh, a member of the Cultural Association in Support of Working Children, "Unfortunately, instead of enjoying their youth, playing sports and getting some education, the country’s young girls who are married, are forced to play the role of a wife and accept all its difficult responsibilities, such as running household chores. This dangerous experience forced upon the children at this age has many dire and harmful repercussions on them and even on their children".
These demeaning Islamic practices are not limited to young girls. The Iranian clerics have encouraged adult women to engage in temporary marriage for compensation. In a practice akin to legalized prostitution, clerics are paid to marry women for limited durations, sometimes as short as a few hours. The man pays the woman an agreed upon sum for companionship and sex while the cleric blesses the arrangement.
These temporary marriages have become prevalent since Khomeini rose to power and is now the major source of support for young women without jobs or steady income.
Multiple wives are also sanctioned by the Islamic Republic and the practice appeals to well-to-do men who are able to support multiple families.
When men take religious pilgrimage to holly sites in Iran, the local clerics often encourage temporary marriage for men who are away from their homes. Women available for temporary marriage are allowed to parade in the local mosques for travellers eager for a few hours of companionship.
The temporary marriage has proved to be a useful tool for the Islamic clerics. They use it to suppress dissent among young Iranians who find it too expensive to get married through the traditional means.
The Iranian clerics blame women for the men’s natural sexual urges by ordering women to wear headgear and restrictive clothing as not to tempt men who may come upon them.
These Islamic practices demeaning to women are not limited to Iran, but Iranian clerics have used these practices as a subtle form of social control in a country still overwhelmingly in favor of secular government and western style democracy.
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