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June 6, 2004 

New inheritance law for Iranian women

Iran's reformist Parliament has passed a bill granting women the same inheritance rights as men, a move that sets the stage for a showdown with the conservative 12-member Guardian Council.

The proposed legislation would equalise inheritance laws for widows and widowers. Under current law, a woman with children can inherit one-eighth of her husband's money, possessions and buildings. A woman without children can inherit one-fourth of those goods, but she cannot inherit land in either case. The rest of her husband's property goes to other relatives or, if they are not alive, to the state.

Men, by contrast, may inherit one-fourth of their wives' assets if they have children and half if they do not.

Rights lawyers reportedly voiced doubt, however, that the law would pass the Guardian Council, an unelected panel dominated by Islamic hard-liners. The constitutional watchdog has rejected several laws promoting equality between the sexes. Last year it refused to ratify the Parliament's proposal to accede to the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The council also attempted to quash a law last November passed by Parliament granting divorced Iranian mothers the right to custody of their sons up to age 7 (they already had the right to custody of their daughters up to that age).

Source: United Nations Foundations