Reformist Blames Hardliners For An ‘Explosive Situation’ In Iran

The motion signed by fifty lawmakers will likely be given priority in parliament. If turned into law, men will no longer be prosecuted by law for not paying the mehrieh if they do not have the means to pay and their assets cannot be frozen by the court to make them pay.

Mehrieh (affection) is assets (usually gold coins) the husband agrees to give the wife in a prenuptial agreement if they divorce or whenever the wife demands it.

For many Iranian women, this could mean getting a divorce becomes potentially harder as according to Iran's Sharia-based laws of matrimony, only men have the right to divorce. Some women use their mehrieh to encourage their husbands to divorce them by forsaking it altogether instead of demanding payment or by asking for a smaller sum if he agrees to the divorce.

Fatemeh Ghasempour, chairwoman of the Women’s Faction in the parliament, is among the critics of the proposed law. “Prosecution of men [who refuse to abide by their mehrieh pledge] will be impossible if the motion passes,” she said adding that the law would encourage more men to refuse to pay and deprive women of mehrieh as leverage in getting a divorce.

Mehrieh can be in the form of money, property, jewelry, or whatever the bride-to-be demands, even a flower when a future wife wants to make a statement about her love and devotion.

Payment, whether large or small in value, is required by the Sharia law and its amount and form are stated in Iranian marriage certificates.

In Iran mehrieh was traditionally paid in cash or in the form of land or other property, but in the past few decades gold coins issued by the government have become the normal form of mehrieh. The value of the coins naturally fluctuates.

Families negotiate the amount of mehrieh before the wedding, much like lawyers in the West negotiate pre-nups.

The number of coins demanded by the bride’s family often has religious significance. Many brides ask for fourteen coins to represent the 12 Shia imams plus the Prophet and his daughter Fatima. But the number can also be representative of the future bride’s year of birth or any given number such as 100 or 1,000. A woman born in 2001 (1380 in the Persian calendar) may demand 1380 Bahar-e Azadi coins the total value of which amounts to over $660,000 in the Iranian market now.

If the parliamentary motion passes, the state will also charge a tax, payable by both sides, at the time of registration of the marriage depending on the value of the pledged gift. The mehrieh tax is meant to lower the astronomically high mehrieh many women and their families demand from grooms these days.

It is not clear if the motive behind the new law is to make marriage easier. After all, the parliament is dominated by hardliners loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has repeatedly called for Iran’s population to increase to 150 million.

Mehrieh debts have landed thousands of men who refused to pay in jail over the years, both before and after divorce. Based on current laws, courts will make men pay in monthly installments if they claim they cannot pay the total all in one go.

The twitter account of the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Austria published photos of Tehran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani at the mourning ceremonies of the Islamic month of Muharram. The event was held at Vienna’s Islamic center of Imam Ali, a Shiite mosque. 

The highlight of the month-long ceremonies of Muharram are the Days of Tasu'a and Ashura, the anniversary of the slaying of Shiite Imam Hussein and his 72 companions by his rivals to the leadership of Muslims. Ceremonies have been held for centuries in Iran and among Shiites in other countries, marking the event in the 680 AD battle of Karbala, in present-day Iraq, and have gained greater state support since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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This round of the Vienna talks reportedly focus on a text circulated in late July by Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy chief, to bridge gaps between the United States and Iran over how the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- or JCPOA -- can be revived. It is unclear how specific are proposals in Borrell’s text and how far he outlines a process.

European officials have presented a tough face to reporters gathered outside the Palais Coburg hotel in Vienna, insisting that the current talks will not be “reopening” negotiations, and urging Tehran not to make “unrealistic demands.”

Some, like lawmaker Mansoor-Ali Zarei, representing Sari, were still hopeful about the government's success and promised "good things to happen in the next month or two. "However, knowing how limited the government’s capabilities and options are, he said, "If this is not accomplished, we will increase our supervision over the administration."

Others, such as member of parliament (Majles) Rahmatollah Norouzi were so disappointed that said: "The Majles is planning to reduce its cooperation with the government," adding that "The Majles is planning to impeach several of Raisi's cabinet ministers."

Most of the complaints made by both groups were about Raisi and his ministers' broken promises and their inability to solve the country's economic problems. Meanwhile, the spokesman for the parliament's Economic Committee Gholamreza Marhab reiterated that US sanctions on Iran are unprecedented in modern history, and the government should try to improve its performance to compensate for the damage.

While acknowledging that the deadlock over the revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement was a major obstacle to this, like most Iranian politicians, he repeated the formulaic rhetoric that the country's economy should not be tied to the problems resulting from the nuclear issue.

Criticism of Raisi and his cabinet began a few weeks after he assumed office in August 2021 and gained momentum earlier this year, but confidence of even his supporters was shaken when a decision by the government in early May led to a sudden jump in food prices.

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Raisi decided to eliminate a key subsidy for food imports, and this led to an across-the-board jump in prices.

An infographic published by Etemad Online website on August 6 indicated that the price of cooking oil has increased by 367 percent in the past year, rice by 200 percent, yogurt by 185 percent, pasta by 168 percent, cheese by 133 percent, butter by 120 percent, eggs by 114 percent, sugar by 102 percent, poultry by 101 percent.

Meanwhile the Tehran Chamber of commerce announced in a new report that meat and rice consumption in Iran has dropped dramatically during the same period.

MP Zarei said it is a shame that Iran has so many economic problems while it owns seven percent of the world's resources and has only one percent of the world population. He added that despite all the economic problems, the members of Raisi's economic team have still not learned to speak in one voice after one year in office.

Norouzi, the lawmaker for Golestan Province also criticized the government for giving a 10 percent pay rise to a small part of workers in Iran while the overall inflation rate in the country is more than 50 percent.

He said, "the Majles has serious criticism of the government's one-year performance, and we expect Raisi to work hard to improve the nation's livelihood."

He added that Iranians are in a very difficult situation and government ministers need to come up with practical plans to solve their problems. He pointed out that costs of housing, meat, dairy products, rice and all other essential commodities have risen dramatically during the one year Raisi and his colleagues were in office.

Norouzi warned that the Majles should put an end to its hesitations and take strict measures against the government if it fails to deliver.

Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, the secretary of Iran’s Headquarters For Enjoining Right And Forbidding Evil, tasked with promoting the clerical regime’s interpretation of Islamic laws, said on Saturday that unfortunately there are no laws to prohibit those whose family members live abroad from assuming government positions. 

He rebuked those officials who keep seeking to provide dollars and euros for their foreign-based children while promulgating the independence of the country. 

Hashemi added that there are some measures under study at the parliament about the issue. 

Earlier in the year, General Morteza Mirian, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ ground operations, said that the relatives of these officials should be “tracked” so as not to be allowed back to Iran to take up managerial positions.

A figure of 5,000 “descendants” of senior officials living abroad was cited in 2020 by Mohammad Gharazi, communications minister between 1985 and 1997 who was at the time considered a presidential hopeful. In November 2021, Alireza Salimi, a member of parliament, suggested that officials under former President Hassan Rouhani, including deputy ministers had moved to Europe due to fears they would be banned from leaving the country.

In 2019, Brian Hook, special representative for Iran (from 2018 to 2020) under President Donald Trump told Iran International that “children of Islamic Republic officials live rich and comfortable lives in the United States and other countries while Iranian people live in terrible conditions.” Hook said this showed “the regime’s hypocrisy.”

It was the outcome of Europe’s multifaceted ascendance in the 19th century that motivated Iranian intellectuals to demand freedom and justice.

Justice was the main demand, and many thought “Constitution” meant justice and a process that would eventually lead to the establishment of courts of justice [Edalat Khaneh or house of justice]. For several centuries, Iranians, then called Persians, were suffering in the hands of despotic monarchs and Sharia judges. Since the 16th century, the oppression by courtiers and Shiite clerics close to the court became unbearable. Kings and grand ayatollahs did whatever they wanted without consulting members of the public.

Particularly under the Safavids (1501-1736) and the Qajars (1789-1925), despotism was the main characteristic of the Persian governments. Under the Qajars, many intellectuals and learned clerics fled Iran and went to the Ottoman Empire or India and set up newspapers and magazines to promote democracy and justice in Iran.

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Once the revolution was successfully established, the idea of justice was soon forgotten or pushed to oblivion by the kings, but democracy flourished in the form of a parliament (Majles or Iran's National Assembly) where most seats were occupied by clerics. The parliament, throughout the Qajar period was divided between pro-British and pro-Russian factions who were constantly fighting each other. Traditionally, Russia supported the despotic monarchs, and Great Britain lent its support to intellectuals and Westernizers.

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The Qajar kings who were supposed to be the guarantor of the Constitution could hardly tolerate it. Muzafareddin Shah who signed the decree of Constitution and Muhammad Ali Shah, his son, who bombed the Majles with the help of the Russians, are widely believed to have been Russian puppets. They were educated and trained by Russian advisers in Tabriz as crown princes. Muhammad Ali Shah finally fled to Russia.

The only likeness of a modern judiciary system was created under Reza Shah Pahlavi with modern courts, and a civil code based on the laws of Belgium, albeit with some clauses to guarantee some benefit for clerics who were no longer partners in the government.

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Although the Majles experienced increasingly less upheavals under the Pahlavis, it was never the institution envisaged by the forefathers of the constitutional revolution. However, the limits the Constitutional Law imposed on the power of the kings were respected by Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

But if the Constitutional Revolution also meant free and fair elections for a parliament represented by all walks of life, the Pahlavis were somewhat successful in upholding the law although there are many reports about rigged elections throughout the period and arrests of political opponents. Apart from that, the Shah held his position for life, and his eldest son would inherit the throne.

Under the Islamic Republic, the Constitution and the Parliament lost their true meaning, as the Supreme Leader’s powers are boundless and for life, and candidates for parliament and president are first chosen by the Guardian Council, controlled by the Supreme Leader, before the people can vote for them.

During the past few days, Empress Farah Pahlavi, and Prince Reza Pahlavi, both in exile, paid tribute to the people’s quest for democracy and remembered the Constitutional Revolution and its heroes. Politicians in the Islamic Republic generally ignored the occasion as freedom and justice, the main elements of the Constitutional Revolution are dangerous issues to raise in Iran under the Islamic Republic.