Iran shuns women

Opinion: March 9, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By SAHAR SEPEHRI

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

WASHINGTON — Iranian women’s groups and other rights organizations are fighting a controversial proposed law they say would encourage polygamy by allowing a man to take a second wife without the permission of the first in certain circumstances.

The proposal comes at a time when the country has been rocked by protests, in which women have played a major part, following the disputed re-election last June of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Although Sharia law permits a man to take up to four wives, polygamy is not widely practiced in Iran, where women have enjoyed greater rights and freedoms than in some other Muslim countries. Currently, an Iranian man needs his first wife’s permission to take a second.

In 1970, women activists demanded that the secular government of Mohammad Reza Shah outlaw polygamy. But despite the government’s positive reaction to their demand, clerics managed to block the attempt. In 1975, an alternative was adopted which permitted polygamy only under certain conditions, such as obtaining the first wife’s permission.

Educated women

Much has changed in Iran since the mid-’70s, when only 36 percent of women were literate. Now, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, 80 percent of women are educated, and almost 1.6 million are university students.

Women’s education has also brought about a drastic change in their demographic behavior. A woman’s average age on marriage is 24; in 1976 it was 18. During the period, the birth rate dropped by a third.

In addition, despite government restrictions on women, the number of female professionals has increased 6 percent a year.

A large group of educated women — scientists, doctors, academics, writers, artists, cinematographers and lawyers — has shaped today’s Iranian society. For years, these women have demanded equal treatment with men. They have resisted any law that weakens their rights or degrades their position in society.

So they were understandably upset when the so-called Family Protection Law was proposed by the government in 2008. The bill said that a man could take a second wife as long as he could afford both wives financially.

The parliament dropped the polygamy part of the measure after a wave of opposition from women, but is now reconsidering a different version of the provision.

The original plan was dropped after a group of intellectuals, religious, social and human-rights activists voiced opposition.

But now, a spokesman for the parliament’s Judicial and Legal Commission, Amir Hussein Rahimi, says that the commission will restore an article that says “a man can marry a second wife under 10 conditions.” Under the revised version of the bill, a husband would still be required to obtain the permission of his first wife before marrying a second. However, the bill also provides numerous exceptions, such as if the first wife is infertile or fails to “cooperate” with her husband sexually.

Sahar Sepehri is a journalist in Washington who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.