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 the husband catches their wife committing a zina offence (adultery and fornication) with another man.11 Article 1105 of the Iranian Civil Code recognizes the husband as the head of the family, which means that his orders must be respected by his wife and children.12 ‘Disobedience’ can be used as a legal ground for battery.13 Article 1108 of the Civil Code stresses that if a wife refuses to have sex with her husband without a reasonable excuse,14 she is not entitled to ‘spousal maintenance’.15 Although the legal minimum age for marriage is 13 years old under Iranian law,16 girls as young as 9 lunar years can marry, subject to parental consent and court approval.17 Therefore, 9 lunar years old married girls and older are also subject to the Civil Code Article 1108’s obligation to fulfil the sexual needs of their husbands. Rape is not classified as a distinct crime under Iranian law but is considered as a zina offence without consent.18 Marital rape is not recognised as a crime at all. The legal definition for ‘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.19 Beyond rape, no other form of sexual assault is specifically criminalised under the Islamic Penal Code.20 As a result, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s legislative framework is insufficient to combat domestic violence and marital rape.21 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 fulfil the sexual needs of their husbands at all times, “might even condone sexual abuse”.22 During its last Universal Periodic Review (November 2019), the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that the Act on Protection, Dignity and Security of Women against 11 Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre https://iranhrdc.org/islamic-penal-code-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-book-five/ Amnesty International, 2015, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1311112015ENGLISH.pdf 13 Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf 14 A reasonable and valid excuse for a wife to refuse sexual relations is when the husband has contracted a venereal disease. Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf 15 Amnesty International, 2015, https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1311112015ENGLISH.pdf 16 Article 1041 of the Civil Code as amended up until December 2000, NGO 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 17 Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf 18 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/ 19 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 2020, https://iranhrdc.org/access-to-justice-for-victims-of-sexual-violence-in-iran/ 20 Ibid. 21 See more: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 2020, https://iranhrdc.org/access-to-justice-for-victims-of-sexualviolence-in-iran/ 22 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 12 3