Women's Empowerment and Leadership Development for Democratisation

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Iran: Clerics broaden women's right to divorce

Iran’s Guardian Council, a hard-line conservative force in Iran, recently approved a bill broadening women’s divorce rights—a right that has been severely limited since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s parliament approved the bill in August, but in order for the bill to become law it had to be approved by the Guardian Council. Currently, women can only file for divorce if they have written permission from their husbands. A woman can also file for divorce if she can prove that her spouse is a drug addict, impotent, or insane. At the same time, however, a man can divorce his wife for any reason.