Some elements of the regime have spoken of the existence of “mafia and corruption” behind the curtains for divorce registration. What is the reality of the divorce registration quota in Iran?

The Red Status of Divorce in Iran

According to government media reports, statistics on the number of marriages per divorce indicate worrisome conditions in Iran; there was one divorce for every 8 marriages in 2009, which has declined to 1 divorce to 1.3 per marriage in 2018. In June of this year, the Tasnim news agency reported on the “red situation” of marriage and divorce in the country.

Divorce registration quotas in Iran

Ali Mozafari, head of the Marriage and Divorce Registrar’s Office, announced the imposition of divorce registration restrictions in divorce offices across the country on 25 January 2020. Accordingly, each divorce office in each province is authorized to register a specified number of divorces each year.

According to Mozaffari, since divorce rates vary in different cities, the “formula” for the divorce registration limit set is that “each city’s offices based on the average divorce rate in the city from last year multiplied by 20 percent compared to its city offices” are allowed to register.

Mozaffari said on 15 January 2020, that “some divorces offices registered divorces by unhealthy deals with family court employees, without the respect for ethical issues and did not allow couples to have a chance to rethink.”

Monetary corruption in divorce registration!

After applying restrictions for divorce registration on 25 January 2020, at Divorce Offices Across the Country, Shahnaz Sajjadi, assistant for citizen rights and the deputy of Iran President for Women’s and Family Affairs, spoke of an action that “could negate the rent and monopoly of some offices and the recession of other offices.”

Sajjadi, while blatantly referring to divorce as “more services,” claimed that “some divorce registrars while having connections, while guiding couples with divorce sentence to specified divorce offices, provide more divorce record services.” She added that “with this monopoly, most divorce registrars are suffering a downturn.”

Sajjadi further exaggerated this and expressed her dissatisfaction because of the “lack of growth in other divorce registries in its profession” over the registration of more divorces, saying “Competition in providing legal services as soon as possible and honesty to clients cannot exist.”

It seems that in the Velayat-e Faqih (mullahs) regime, while divorces result in the collapse of a family and consequently, other problems for the family members, for the assistant for civil rights and the deputy of Iran President at Women’s and Family Affairs, it is just like other affairs in this regime for business, income, and rent.

The main purpose of divorce registration quotas

Divorce is one of the social problems whose roots social science researchers find in poverty, unemployment, and addiction which has a direct bearing on government policies and the inefficiency of government in solving these problems, which has an immediate effect on family problems and the increase of divorce rates.

The regime has always sought to refrain from providing statistics on social problems such as poverty, unemployment, addiction, that question the performance of the leaders of the regime. In other words, since divorce statistics have increased significantly in Iran, the new directive is a trick to reduce the official registration of divorce.

Ali Akbar Mahzoun, director general of information and demographic statistics at the Census Bureau in July 2016 while stating that no further divorce statistics would be announced, added: “Divorce statistics are sufficiently stated and giving any further statistics will solve no problem.”

Information on marriage and divorce has not been updated on the website of the Census Bureau since 2016.

The Iranian people also hate the Islamic caliphate in marriage and divorce

Such speculative practices in divorce and marriage have also angered people in recent years and have brought people to offices that do not conform to the methods developed by the regime.

The “Aryan Marriage Ceremony” is one of the initiatives that have taken place in recent years by some Iranian couples instead of performing formal ceremonies at the official offices of the regime, during which they read an oath in Persian. (The marriage oath in Islamic countries is in Arabic)

The Velayat-e Faqih regime considers these ceremonies illegal. Mozaffari announced before the suspension of some of these institutions are doing this (the Aryan Marriage Ceremony).

Mozaffari announced the number of such establishments whose offices were sealed to be 34, mainly in Tehran and Alborz provinces, and said five bureaucrats had been temporarily suspended for holding the Aryan ceremonies. The regime’s “prosecutor” in Hamadan also announced recently that two marriage offices have been sealed because of Aryan Marriage Ceremony.