Witness Statement of Hamid

IHRDC

3 days ago

Name: Hamid*

Interviewing Organization: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC)

Date of Interview: April 9, 2024

Interviewer: IHRDC Staff

This statement was prepared pursuant to an audio interview with Mr. Hamid. There are 24 paragraphs in the statement.

The views and opinions of the witness expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.

*Pseudonym assigned to protect the witness’s identity.

Statement

My name is Hamid (a pseudonym). I hold several university degrees in different fields.
We belonged to a generation that witnessed a profound transformation in society. Women were introduced to things they had never experienced before. For example, two decades ago, women were afraid that their husbands might divorce them, whereas today the situation has completely reversed, and it is men who fear that women may take that step. Divorce no longer carries the same stigma. In the past, a divorced woman faced extremely difficult circumstances. For instance, she might not even be welcomed at weddings because people considered her presence a bad omen. That was the prevailing mind-set at the time. Today, however, two out of every three marriages end in divorce. These days, it seems that women are more inclined to seek divorce. I have known many women who were willing to forgo their mehrieh [a marital financial entitlement owed by a husband to his wife] just to obtain a divorce. One of my friends says that beauty salons, social pressures, and keeping up with others have also played a significant role. I do not want to place all the blame on women. Men are at fault in some cases as well. However, the factors I have mentioned have certainly made the situation worse.
I was once speaking with a judge who told me, “Our women are perfectly decent women until they enter the courtroom.” Unfortunately, our legal system contributes to this problem. When a woman enters the court system, the path before her is not the same as it is for a man. That process can often make the conflict worse. There are lawyers and legal advisers involved who have a financial interest in cases concerning mehrieh, maintenance, and similar claims. They benefit from taking on such cases, and that can end up fuelling the dispute. It’s become easy to study law, and there are now too many lawyers. If the spouses reach an agreement regarding the mehrieh, these lawyers also take a percentage. I do not know the exact figure. For example, ten gold coins can represent one or even two years’ worth of income for a man. A lawyer in that position clearly has an incentive to pursue such cases. I have seen it happen. I have seen women who are good-looking. If they fully understood from the outset where this path could lead, many of them would never go down it. Every marriage has its problems, and people’s tolerance has declined significantly. Yet the system has evolved in such a way that, as the saying goes, people think they can smell meat on the barbecue, only to discover that a donkey is being branded [meaning that what initially appears attractive or rewarding turns out to be something entirely different and disgusting].
From the very beginning, I did everything I could to prevent our disagreements from ending in separation. But whenever I spoke to her, it felt as though I was talking to someone who believed I owed her eight billion Tomans. When someone thinks you owe them that kind of money, they naturally feel entitled to take a hard line. They expect whatever they say to be right. For example, she would say, “I want eight billion Tomans. Give me four billion and walk away.” I said to her, “Is this really the path you want to go down?” The courtroom is not a place where anyone wins. In the end, both sides lose. Whether you get your mehrieh from me or give it up entirely, we both lose because our child is the one who suffers. There are no winners on this path I have no doubt that if her mehrieh had been lower, we would still be living together today. Her mehrieh had been set at 350 gold coins. After twelve years of married life, she decided to enforce it. She moved into a separate home and told the court that she would only return if I transferred ownership of the house to her and granted her the right to divorce me. Earlier, when things were good between us, I had already put a car in her name. We have now been separated for six years, and during that time I have paid her four gold coins towards her mehrieh.
After my wife left the marital home, I obtained six court orders requiring her to return home, and she lost all six cases. Unfortunately, unlike mehrieh, which can be enforced, these orders have no real enforcement power. If a woman refuses to return, there is effectively nothing you can do. To put it bluntly, even if I were to see my wife with another man, there would still be very little I could do. The process is so long that even if you try to prove it, in practice there is very little you can do. But if you fail to pay the gold coins owed under mehrieh, an arrest warrant is issued, and wherever you are, they can take you to prison, and you will not be released until the coins are paid. The arrest warrants issued in mehrieh cases even allow the authorities to enter a person’s hiding place. Arrest warrants for other types of financial debt do not carry those powers. Nothing else has the same enforcement power that mehrieh
My wife went to the Registration Office to enforce her mehrieh. At first, she sought payment of 50 gold coins. In recent years, it has become common not to pursue the entire mehrieh at once. Instead, it is broken down into smaller amounts, which reduces the costs involved. Some people try to do this more than once, although it is not always successful. They first pursue 50 coins, and once that process is finished, they pursue another 50. Each time, they obtain fresh seizure orders so that if any money appears in the husband’s account in the meantime, they can claim it. My wife pursued 50 gold coins, and the case then went to court. I did not own a house or a car, and she had not managed to have my bank accounts frozen. She claimed that I had a high income, but she could not prove it because I had nothing.
The court process is a bad road to go down. We were simply living our lives. I am a very calm person, although I do lose my temper quickly at times. I knew that my wife had been going to court, but I did not know the details. Looking back now, I understand what was happening. For example, when I came home in the evenings, my wife would bring things up in a way that she knew would make me angry. She knew how I would react. I would tell her to stop, and sometimes she would end up with a bruise on her arm! We would usually make up again very quickly afterwards. But the next day she would go to the Forensic Medicine Organisation and to court and file a complaint. She would later withdraw the complaint and the case would be closed, but she would still obtain a medical report from the Forensic Medicine Organisation. In this way, she obtained two such reports within a few months. I believe someone had told her that if she wanted a divorce, she would need several reports of this kind. That was the path she chose. One day, after breakfast, as I was leaving the house, I was suddenly summoned. We were on good terms at the time. In fact, I kissed her goodbye, as I did every morning, and left the house.
I received a call from the Dispute Resolution Council, which I jokingly refer to as the “Dispute Escalation Council.” They told me that a complaint had been filed against me. I asked what it was about, but they simply said, “Come to the office and you’ll find out.” When I arrived, I saw that my wife was there as well. There was another woman there too. It may not matter now where my wife is, but at the time I really did not want to see my wife in court. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. The moment I arrived, before I had been told anything about the case, that woman said to me, “Why do you beat your wife? That’s wrong. She’s a helpless woman.” I got very angry. I said, “What are you talking about? Shut your mouth! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
That woman was the head of the branch of the Dispute Resolution Council. After we returned home, the arguments between us became much more serious. By that point, my wife had already obtained four or five reports from the Forensic Medicine Organisation, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on. In the end, because she had those reports, I was ordered to pay maintenance, and the court granted her a divorce. I then filed a petition and appealed the divorce order. My wife was initially granted the right to divorce me, but thankfully that decision was later overturned. As for the issue of returning to the marital home, I told the court that I would provide a home for her, and I paid the compensation that had been awarded. From that point on, things change. Whatever a woman manages to get at the beginning, she gets. If she does not get it then, getting it from the man later becomes much harder. The same applies to men. If there was anything you wanted to put beyond her reach, you had to do it at that stage. Afterwards, it becomes much harder. By that stage, any favours either side was going to show, had already been shown!
If a woman goes to the Registration Office while she is still living in the marital home and obtains a seizure order without her husband knowing about it, then she has already secured it. But if that stage passes, things become more difficult. The husband can produce a private sale agreement and say that he has already sold his assets. The agreement remains valid. For example, I can draw up a sale agreement dated six months earlier stating that a house was sold and the payment was received. A power of attorney can also be given to the other person. The other person can then file a sham complaint saying that I sold them the property but never transferred it into their name. The property is then transferred into their name and the matter is over. That option exists. There is also the problem that just when you think you are certain of something in court, a new law, amendment, or directive comes along and changes everything. It becomes very difficult. For example, I had put a car in my wife’s name. Later, when our disputes became more serious, I could have applied to revoke the gift. She, in turn, could have transferred the car to someone else or sold it to another person through a private written agreement. Recovering it would then have become much more difficult.
I also obtained a court ruling against my wife in relation to maintenance. For a period of three to four months, I deposited money into her account, usually between 300 and 500. I then filed another petition seeking an order requiring her to return to the marital home. She claimed that her life would be in danger if she returned. I argued that any such danger no longer existed and that there was no threat to her safety. She continued to claim that she was not safe, and I said that she would have to prove it. In the end, she couldn’t prove it.
The first time my wife sought enforcement of her mehrieh, I was detained. I should have filed an application declaring my inability to pay, and it would have been quite straightforward. However, I contracted COVID-19 during that period, and when the court notification arrived, I didn’t read it. I was at my office when they came and told me to go with them. I thought we would go and talk things through and that the matter would be resolved. But when we arrived there, I was told that I had to put up a property deed as security. Unfortunately, once you enter prison, getting out again is genuinely very difficult. Fortunately, my sister acted quickly and provided a property deed as bail. I was released three or four days later. However, if someone has nobody to help them, they may remain there for two or three months. It may take around twenty days for the court hearing to be held and for the judge to issue a ruling. If the other party then appeals, the case goes to appeal, and until a final judgment is issued, getting out of prison becomes very difficult.
Once the mehrieh is enforced, you are expected to pay it in full. There is no instalment plan. From the date enforcement begins, if I remember correctly, you have about twenty days to apply for inability to pay. They ask the husband, “Your wife has sought enforcement of her mehrieh. Do you accept that?” You have to say yes. You cannot say no, because the amount of the mehrieh is stated in the marriage certificate and is already known. You accept that you are required to pay that number of coins. After that, a judgment is issued against you. You must either pay it or file an application declaring your inability to pay. In other words, you tell the court, “I accept the judgment against me, but given my circumstances, I do not have the money.” You also take two male witnesses to court to support your statement. The witnesses can be relatives, but what they say must be the same as your words.
I took witnesses to court on two occasions: once for an application declaring my inability to pay diyah [blood money] to my wife, and once for the mehrieh. In the criminal compensation case, before taking the witnesses to court, I held a briefing session for both of them. I told them that the judge would first ask me how much I earned. He would then ask them the same question, and they would need to say that my monthly income was between six and seven million Tomans. The judge would also ask whether I had any debts, whether I was making instalment payments, how much those payments were, and who they were being paid to. I told them, “You need to know these details in full and give exactly the same answers.” The judge questions each witness separately.
At today’s value (at the time of this interview), I had to pay my wife around 200 million Tomans in diyah. One of the witnesses I wanted to take to court was a friend of mine. He said, “Since I will have to swear an oath in court, I need to make sure that you really do have these instalment payments.” So we went to the banks to check. I took him to every bank where I had a loan repayment. Judges issue rulings based on their own discretion. During the hearing, the judge asked my wife how she wanted the diyah to be paid. She replied, “One million Tomans a month.” At the time, that was still a lot of money. The judge said, “One million is too much. Even I, as a judge, could not pay one million Tomans a month.” Yet after speaking to the witnesses, the same judge ordered me to pay 2.7 million Tomans a month in diyah. I paid the money within five or six months, despite all the hardship.
An application declaring inability to pay in a mehrieh case is not the same as one in a diyah case, and there is less scrutiny. Judges also tend to be more sympathetic towards men. During the few days that I was in prison, I filed an application declaring my inability to pay the mehrieh from inside the prison. After I was released, I made sure the witnesses fully understood what was expected of them. I knew exactly what questions the judge was going to ask. The procedure was that the judge would first question me, then the witnesses, and finally my wife. He would ask her, “Do you claim that he owns a house, a car, or any other assets?” If she said that I owned something, the judge would tell her that she had to prove it. If a man has two good witnesses at this stage, he can obtain a ruling recognising his inability to pay. The problem, however, is that the decision can be appealed against.
This actually happened to me. The trial court initially ruled that I had to pay one coin upfront and then one coin every fourteen months thereafter. However, my wife appealed against it. On appeal, her claim was rejected because she could not prove that I owned any assets. Even so, the ruling was changed, and instead of paying one coin every fourteen months, I was ordered to pay one coin every ten months.
Once a person’s inability to pay has been recognised by the court, any later change to the mehrieh instalments is known as an adjustment. An application for adjustment must be submitted to the same court branch that originally issued the ruling on the inability-to-pay claim. This is a major advantage because the judge who issued the original ruling, is already familiar with the details of the case and can more easily decide whether an adjustment is justified.
After the price of gold coins suddenly shot up, I applied for an adjustment, but my application was rejected. The judge’s reasoning was that I was enrolled in two programmes at Islamic Azad University at the same time and therefore had the financial means to pay. I took two witnesses to court as well, but the judge did not speak to them. After the price of gold coins increased dramatically again, I submitted another application. I even provided the court with an official price confirmation from the jewellers’ association. Eventually, the judge changed the payment schedule to one coin every fourteen months. With inflation and rising prices, people’s standard of living keeps dropping. For example, an income that was seven million Tomans has become ten million, but expenses have risen to twenty million. I repeatedly explained to the court and put it in writing that I also paid my child’s living expenses, but I do not think it made much difference. The judge does not really pay attention to those things. Usually, he looks at the price of the gold coin and relies more on the written documents than on what you say.
After the payment schedule for the mehrieh was changed to one coin every fourteen months as a result of my adjustment application, my wife filed her own adjustment application. She asked the court to order me to pay one coin every six months. As a result, there were two separate cases. I wanted the interval increased from ten to fourteen months, while my wife wanted it reduced from ten to six months. The appellate court ruled on my wife’s case first. It decided that one coin every six months was not approved and that the schedule should remain one coin every ten months, even though the adjustment ruling had already changed it to one coin every fourteen months. My wife’s application was rejected, but the appellate court had still not ruled on my case. I even obtained a letter from the judge to the enforcement office telling them to hold off. However, my wife took that ruling to the enforcement office and obtained a warrant for my arrest. In fact, the enforcement office issued the arrest warrant by mistake. One day I was at my office when they came and took me away. I spent one night in detention, and that night I made up all the prayers I had missed! After that, the problem was resolved. I proved to the enforcement office that I was required to pay one coin every fourteen months. The mehrieh also includes a Hajj However, I do not know whether that can be enforced in the same way as the gold coins.
I still have not divorced my wife. I do not pay maintenance either, because she did not fulfil her marital obligations. Our child also lives with me. At a certain point, a marriage breaks down and there is no motivation left to continue. I always told my wife that I did not want to fight with her, but she did not see it that way. Unfortunately, when women find themselves in that environment, they tend to see everyone as an enemy. We had many court cases. Once, in the early stages of our disputes, I went to my wife’s home and asked her to come downstairs so we could talk. Then the police turned up and told me that I was harassing her. I said, “What are you talking about? She is my wife!” After that, every six months or so I was convicted of harassment. She also accused me of using abusive language, intimidation, and making threats against her life, but she was unable to prove any of those allegations on appeal.
There were many instances in the mehrieh proceedings where I felt I was treated unfairly. Quite often, women go to court, cry, and sway the judge. They do this without the other party even being present. Changing the number of coins makes a big difference to the person who has to pay it.
Higher education can influence a judge. It is not proof, but it can be taken as an indication. For example, they may say that if someone can afford to pay tuition fees at Islamic Azad University, then he can also afford to pay the mehrieh. Or if a man has a lawyer, the judge may assume that because he can afford legal representation’s fees, he has the financial means to pay. Apart from the criminal case, I did not have a lawyer for any of the other proceedings.
There is a new law which, as I understand it, imposes tax on any mehrieh above fourteen gold coins. I think it’s a good law. When we were getting married, people used to say, “Who has ever paid a mehrieh, and who has ever received one?!” Now a man has to tell a woman, “To marry you, I have to pay this tax to the government. Are you willing to accept that?” Because without paying it, the marriage will not be registered. Perhaps this will lead many people to set the mehrieh at fourteen coins. Then, if a dispute arises later, there is a huge difference between fourteen coins and, for example, three hundred. A person starts asking himself whether it is really worth it. This may reduce the number of mehrieh Of course, whenever a new rule is introduced, people find ways around it. For example, a woman may say, “Put the house in my name instead.” Men have also become more cautious after seeing so many mehrieh disputes. At present in Iran, mehrieh is a business; not only because of legal loopholes, but also because of the culture of our society.