age for marriage is 13 for girls and 15 for boys.13 However, children who have reached puberty (9 lunar years for girls, 15 lunar years for boys) can marry with parental consent and court approval.14 The Iranian legal framework does not fully protect women from violence. For instance, the Islamic Republic of Iran does not have laws which specifically criminalise domestic violence. Article 630 of the Islamic Penal Code (2013) excludes husbands from criminal liability when they commit murder, assault and battery against their wife if she is caught committing a zina offence, adultery and fornication with another man.15 Rape is not classified as a distinct crime under Iranian law, rather it is considered as a zina offence without consent.16 It is important to mention that marital rape is not recognised as a crime at all. The legal definition of ‘coerced zina’ is restricted to forced vaginal and anal penetration by a penis, therefore excluding other forms of penetration, and only when the perpetrator and the victim are unmarried, therefore explicitly excluding marital rape.17 Beyond rape, no other form of sexual assault is specifically criminalised under the Islamic Penal Code.18As a result, Iran’s legislative framework is insufficient to combat domestic violence and marital rape.19 In 2017, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran found that Article 1108 of the Iranian Civil Code, which obliges wives to fulfill the sexual needs of their husbands at all times, “might even condone sexual abuse”.20 There is a serious lack of comprehensive and readily available official data on the prevalence of domestic violence in the Islamic Republic of Iran,21 22 13 Article 1041 of the Civil Code as amended up until December 2000, NGO Impact Iran Coalition, Joint Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19809_E.pdf 14 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf 15 Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre https://iranhrdc.org/islamic-penal-code-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-book-five/ 16 Article 221 of the Islamic Penal Code (2013), Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, https://iranhrdc.org/englishtranslation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/ 17 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 2020, https://iranhrdc.org/access-to-justice-for-victims-of-sexual-violence-in-iran/ 18 Ibid. 19 See more: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 2020, https://iranhrdc.org/access-to-justice-for-victims-of-sexualviolence-in-iran/ 20 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2017, https://www.refworld.org/docid/58bd7e2b4.html 21 Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, Centre for Supporters of Human Rights and Minority Rights Group International September 2019, https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1203136/download 22 Amnesty International, ‘You shall procreate’ (p. 31), March 2015, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1311112015ENGLISH.pdf 3

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