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Iran’s judiciary has banned a magazine for encouraging cohabitation, according to an Iranian newspaper.
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
Sex outside marriage is crime under Iran’s sharia-based laws, punishable by flogging. In cases of adultery, it can carry a sentence of death by stoning.
Last year, the magazine Zanan-e Emrouz (Today’s Women) published a special issue discussing various aspects of cohabitation, dubbed “white marriage” in Iran, and the reasons behind what it said was the increasing number of unmarried Iranian couples living together.
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“The press watchdog banned Zanan-e Emrouz monthly today for encouraging and justifying ‘white marriage’,” the Shargh newspaper reported on Monday.
Last year, the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a clampdown on cohabitation..
The youth affairs and sports ministry has blamed the media for fuelling interest in a practice the country’s hardline clerical rulers call an “ominous marriage” that shamefully flouts Islamic values.
Iranian law makes it more difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce than a man, which may be behind the cohabitation trend. Officials deny this discriminates against women, saying it is simply the application of sharia rules.
According to Iranian media, around 20% of marriages in Iran end in divorce, mainly because of economic hardship, adultery and drug addiction.
While disapproving of cohabitation, Iran allows the traditional Shia temporary marriage or “sigheh”, under which a couple can contract a marriage lasting anywhere from a few minutes to 99 years.
Iranian rights activists have criticised this option as sexist.
