A Criticism of the Authority of the Rule on non validity of Women's Testimony in Legal Affairs

One of the issues raised in the discussion of testimony, is the role of gender on the credibility of the witness. Today, in the laws of most countries, being a male is not one of the conditions for the validity of one’s testimony, but in Iranian law, there are differences in the credibility of the testimony by a woman compared to the testimony provided by a man. The present question of this paper is that, “Can being a man or a woman have an affect on the credibility of the testimony or not? According to jurists and statute law; women's testimony in legal affairs and and Haq-al-nas (what is due to mankind) and basically in non-financial matters such as divorce and the sighting of the moon is neither accepted individually nor with that of men. There is disagreement about marriage and deliberate murder as well. One of the reasons for this is a rule entitled: we lick money …. In the present paper, by studying the above mentioned rule and its jurisprudential sources and theoretical analyses, the author has reached the conclusion that the regulation in question is no longer valid; rather there are cases which violate it. Hence, it is proposed that: Article 230 of the Civil Procedure Code be amended and the testimony of women in cases involving Haq-al-nas (what is due to mankind), be accepted whether they be financial or non-financial unless there are cases where reasons for a woman's testimony does not exist.