Marriage with an Adopted Child from the Iranian Constitutional Law Perspective

Recently Iran passed a law titled “Protection of Children without Guardian or with an Improper Guardian” that provides in part: "... marriage between a guardian and an adopted child is prohibited both during and after custody, unless a competent court, after obtaining the advisory opinion from the (state welfare) organization, affirms that it is in the interest of the adopted child." It was claimed that in the absence of a prohibition under Sharia law and silence of the legislation in force, there exist some cases of marriage with an adopted child. Hence, with this regulation a competent court may allow such marriages based on the interest of the adopted child and in this way, at least the child will be protected against possible harms. This claim raises the question that given articles 10, 20 and 21 of the Constitution, to what extent can such a provision protect the sanctity and solidarity of familial relations based on Islamic law and ethics, woman's rights, protecting children without guardians, and equal legal protection for all, including men and women? This paper addresses this question by analyzing the consequences of such a provision, and ultimately suggests that, in order to prevent the immorality of relations within families and the collapse of the family, and to ensure the protection of the child from harms and protect the rights of women, repealing this provision must be placed on the agenda of the Legislature as soon as possible.