Event 1

On November 6, I went to the film "Divorce Iranian Style" in Torg 1060.

This film was set in the capital city Tehran at the divorce court. This film was made in 1998 and its theme was to debunk stereotypes. When I chose to go to this film and when I told some of my friends I was going to see this film, the first thought that came to my mind and the first thing my friends would say was, "The can get divorced in Iran?"

In Iran men are allowed to request divorce but the wives are assumed to want to stay in the marriage so they are not welcomed when they do go in to request a divorce. They expect the women to compromise to what their husband likes. One of the quotes I wrote down from the movie was "If he is applying for divorce, he has the right to take her back".

There are three different reasons that women are allowed to apply for divorce: if the husband is unable to father a child, if there was deception or insanity at the time of marriage (which can be seen in arranged marriage- the example from the film), or if the man has more than one wife. That last one is actually confusing. In Iran, a man is allowed to have more than one wife if the first wife agrees. But the two wives are not allowed to live in the same house.

The legal age a girl can be married in Iran is when she reaches puberty. This could be as early as nine years old.

If a woman has had children from one marriage, and divorces that husband, there can be a custody battle for the children. If she acquires the children and then gets remarried later, the ex-husband has the choice to take the children away from her. Essentially she risks having to give away her children. "You're a mother. You must sacrifice everything." " You remarried. When you remarry you lose your child."

These laws aren't fair. One of the cases when the wife was trying to keep her children, she was forced to give them up. The judge even know the children's grades were better when she lived with her mom than her dad and he knew the dad didn't believe school was important. This same child was at the age when she was legally allowed to choose which parent she wanted to live with, but wasn't given that opportunity because she would have chosen the mother.