Iranian women protest so-called family protection bill

Gathering of Iranian women on August 19

Iranian opposition leader, Zahra Rahnavard urged Iran’s Islamic Parliament to scrap the recent controversial family protection law from its agenda.

Kaleme website reports that Rahnavard has called on the parliament to leave the evaluation of this bill of law to a “group of expert and progressive men and women.”

Last week, Iranian media reported that the family protection bill of law, after three years of delay, will be put in the parliament’s agenda.

Opponents of this legislation thus organized gatherings and issued articles to protest against it.

This bill proposes to allow men to commit polygamy without proof of financial means or the first wife’s consent. It also proposes to tax the one-time lump sum of alimony paid to women upon divorce.

Zahra Rahnavard insists that the Quran’s references to polygamy belong to a different time and historical situation and are being misinterpreted in this bill.

Rahnavard goes on to add that “scrapping this bill from the parliament’s agenda is not a women’s issue but rather a national demand aiming at the prosperity of the Iranian nation and the permanence of Iranian families.”

A group of women from different organizations and groups gathered on Thursday and Saturday to critique the controversial family protection bill and devise a plan of action to stop it from becoming law.