Instant verbal divorce rips families apart in Iran's Kurdish region

An uncommon Sunni practice granting immediate verbal divorce has wreaked havoc on the lives of many Kurdish-Iranian families, and some legal and religious parties argue it should be abolished.
An Iranian dress designer checks the fit of a veil on a bride at a high fashion studio in north Tehran October 2, 2007. Wearing the all-enveloping chador (veil) or a headscarf and loose-fitting full-length coat is obligatory under Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Offenders face fines, whipping or jail. But that has not stopped image-conscious Iranian women and a growing number are going under the knife for new noses, tummy tucks, liposuction, lifting eyelids or breast augmentation. Pic
An Iranian dress designer checks the fit of a veil on a bride at a fashion studio in north Tehran, Oct. 2, 2007. - REUTERS/Caren Firouz
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Leila Alikarami

Rozhan thought that she was in a happy and loving marriage — until her husband divorced her through an archaic Islamic practice that she was scarcely aware of.

Rozhan, 30, lived with her husband, Shaho, 41, and their two small children in Mariwan, a border town in the Kurdish region in western Iran. Last spring, Rozhan told her husband that she was going to visit her sister who lived just a few streets away. Shaho objected, saying casually, “I triple talaq [divorce] you if you go.”

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