After a life of spinsterhood, Setareh, an 80-year-old Iranian woman, assumed she was fated to see out her remaining days alone and was preparing to move into an old people's home for company. When the boy-next-door from her youth suddenly reappeared and proposed, she thought her long-forgotten dreams of marriage were about to be fulfilled.
But Iran's laws require a father to grant permission to his daughter before she is allowed to marry. Now the lovestruck octogenarian has asked a court in Tehran to establish whether her father, who abandoned her when she was two, is dead or alive so that her wedding can go ahead.
The legal obstacle came to light when Setareh and her betrothed, Jamshid, tried to tie the knot at a registrar's office, only to be told the ceremony could not go ahead without either the written agreement or proof of death of her father.
It represented a cruel blow to the elderly couple, who had been childhood sweethearts but were forced to scrap plans to wed after Setareh's mother protested that it would lead to her being left alone. Reluctantly, Setareh resigned herself to living with her mother.
The judge, Mahmoud Baghal Shirvan, asked the Iranian registrar's organisation to examine the father's status and pronounce whether he is dead or alive. He also asked officials to check whether he had passed through Iran's land, air or sea frontiers since abandoning his family. If the father is found to have died, the court is expected to permit Setareh to marry.
Her plight is an example of what campaigners say is systematic discrimination against women under Iranian law. But the state-linked Iranian Women's News Agency said women needed their father's permission to protect them from "emotional" marriage decisions.
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