Women’s Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

On December 9, 2007, Tehran University in Tehran, Tehran University, a female student protesting against the government of Iran. (c) AFP

 

  1.    Women and children are properties of men. 
  2.    The value of a woman’s life is one half of the life of a man.
  3.   The testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of one man.
  4.   Daughters get half the inheritance that the sons get.
  5.   A woman does not have the right to divorce her husband.
  6.   A man can divorce his wife any time he wishes and without her knowledge.
  7.   Men are allowed to marry 4 wives and as many temporary wives as they want.
  8.   Women can not travel, work, go to school, or even leave the house without the husband’s permission.
  9.   A woman must live where her husband decides.
  10.   Mothers do not get the custody of their children when the husbands divorce them.
  11.   Husbands can take the baby away from the mother and have another woman feed and raise the infant.
  12.   A widow does not get the custody of her children after the death of her husband. The children will be given to the paternal grandparents or relatives and the mother has no right of visitation.
  13.   If the husband has no family the Mullah of the community takes the custody of the woman’s children and all the family money and belongings.
  14.   In the case of a man’s death the wife will be left without her children, home and belongings.
  15.   The age of criminal responsibility, under article 1210(1) of Iran’s Civil code is set at 15 for boys and 9 for girls.
  16.   The law sanctions marriage of girls before 13 years of age and boys at 15.
  17.   In his book Ayatollah Khomeini requires that young girls should be at the husband’s home before they reach puberty.
  18.   In the case of inheritance for the old wife, mother of the grown children, she gets 1/8th of the value of the building of the house. Not the land that the house is sitting on.