Judicial interpretations of sexual misconduct of husbands in family courts

The sexual abuse of the wife by the husband is not explicitly recognized in the Iranian legal system. However, in light of some of the provisions in the family law, one can find the grounds to consider this issue. Due to the legislator's silence in defining conjugal obedience, separating general and specific obedience and determining the limits and scope of each, identification and recognition of the sexual rights of couples in family lawsuits face challenges. This study answers the questions that, given the sexual abuse by the husband, what legislative mechanism is provided to support the wife in the Iranian legal system and how family court judges interpret these laws. This paper, using a qualitative approach and case study methodology, after reviewing jurisprudential texts and reviewing legal laws investigates the judicial procedure of family courts in Tehran province in issuing rulings requiring obedience or judicial divorce due to sexual harassment of the wife by analyzing the content of cases, interviewing judges and women applicants of divorce. Findings show that judges’ interpretations of the instances of sexual misconduct are varied and verification of the wife's sexual hardship, in addition to the difficulty of proof, lacks clear criteria and is based on judges' personal interpretations of the scope of conjugal obedience. Therefore, there seems to be a need to include the conventional sexual rights of couples in the family laws and establish a unified procedure in issuing a sentence of non-obligation to obey and verification of the wife's hardship in cases of sexual abuse by the husband.