President Hassan Rouhani’s deputy for women and family affairs has admitted that even she needs her husband’s permission to apply for a passport to travel abroad.

Responding on Facebook to a friend’s question about this issue, Shahindokht Mulaverdi added: “Article 18 of the proposed passport law aims to tackle the issue of husbands’ consent. Currently however it is not being debated in the Majles (parliament).” Mulaverdi also mentioned that when working as a notary, her first client had been a woman applying for permission to travel abroad, and that she herself had had to do the same.

According to Mulaverdi the current law only requires husbands’ permission for women under forty, and as the issue has invoked public criticism Majles deputies have suspended it until a reformed version has been ratified.

Shahrzadnews