Women in Iran can now demand divorces from husbands who are alcoholics or drug addicts, one of the Islamic Republic's top legal bodies has decided, media reports said Sunday.
The Expediency Council, which arbitrates between the reform-dominated parliament and the conservative, constitutional Guardians Council, made the decision at a meeting on Saturday, the reports said.
It said the courts would especially recognize cases where the addict husbands cannot drop the habit and family life is disturbed, they said, according to AFP.
Iran is the country in the Middle East with the biggest drug trafficking and addiction problems, according to a United Nations drug report for 2001, adding that the country counted about two million addicts.
Iranian law, based largely on Islamic Sharia law, has allowed women to divorce on grounds of insanity, impotence, or inability to provide financially for the family, but usually only after long and costly legal proceedings with the consent of the husbands. But for Iranian men, divorces are granted upon request. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
