Iran lawmakers pass bill allowing men to marry adopted daughters

Saeed Kamali Dehghan, The Guardian

This article in the Guardian newspaper reports on a new bill passed by parliamentarians in Iran that includes a clause that allows a man to marry his adopted daughter and while she is as young as 13 years. Activists and experts inside and outside of Iran have expressed their alarm at the proposal, which has not yet received the backing of Iran's Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists that vets all parliamentary bills before the constitution and the Islamic law.

The article quotes Shiva Dolatabadi, head of Iran's society for protecting children's rights, who warned that the bill implies that the parliament is legalising incest. "You cannot open a way in which the role of a father or a mother can be mixed with that of an spouse".

Girls in the Islamic republic can marry as young as 13 provided they have the permission of their father. Boys can marry after the age of 15. Marrying stepchildren, however, was forbidden under any circumstances under the law.

The Guardian reports that the bill has prompted backlash in Iran with the reformist newspaper, Shargh, publishing an article warning about its consequences. "How can someone be looking after you and at the same time be your husband?" the article asked.