Compens ation for Defloration in the Iranian Crimi nal law and I mamia's Juris prudence

The conditions of redress and penalty for defloration have not been specified explicitly in the Iranian law. A discussion which often arises is about the conditions of the payment of arsh-ol-bekarah (bekarah=virginity) and mahr-ol-mesl in case of defloration. In this article, with the help of comparative study on the penal laws enacted in 1370 and 1392 (1991 and 2013) and analyzing the basics of jurisprudence and judicial decisions, we have come to the conclusion that the hymen has no wergild and if defloration is performed with harshness, and through intercourse, both mahr-olmesl and arsh-ol-bekarah have to be paid. In this case unlike arshol- bekarah, which is lower than the complete wergild for a woman, the amount of mahr-ol-mesl may be higher and if no intercourse has taken place then only mahr-ol-mesl has to be paid. In this case mahr-ol-mesl cannot exceed the complete wergild for a woman. In unintentional offenses only mahr-ol-mesl – according to the Islamic penal code enacted in 1991 – is paid. In case of consented defloration the mahr-ol-mesl and arsh-ol-bekarah are variable.