News, November 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
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Iranian women win improved child custody rights
Khaleej Times, (Reuters)
30 November 2003
TEHRAN - Iranian women won the right to have custody of boys up to the age of seven on on Saturday, giving divorced mothers the same rights over their sons as they do over their daughters, a reformist parliamentarian said.
Under Iran's strict law, divorced women already had automatic custody of girls until they are seven, but were previously only able to keep boys until they were two.
"The Expediency Council granted divorced mothers custody of both girls and boys until the age of seven," Elaheh Kulai, a reformist woman deputy, said after it was broadcast on state television.
Iran's conservative-controlled legislative body, the Guardian Council, had twice rejected the change on the grounds that it was against Islamic law, despite its approval by the reformist-led parliament last year.
But parliament's decision was backed by the powerful Expediency Council, the top arbitration body headed by influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
"It is a positive step forward for defending women's rights," said Ms Kulai.
The reform is one of several bids by parliament to overcome the conservatives' resistance and improve the lot of Iranian women, who cannot become president or a judge and are entitled to half of the inheritance due to a man.
Judges also often give fathers the custody of their children, regardless of their qualifications as parents.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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