Divorce Iranian Style

Director Kim Longinotto and anthropologist Ziba Mir-Hosseini spent six months in an Iranian family court in Tehran, presided over by a judge who is a cleric. What they observed and captured there were court cases featuring women of all ages and drawn from every social stratum, each battling passionately – tooth and nail – in turn, with humor and guile, threats and theatricality, for a fair and decent divorce. Jamileh is being beaten by her husband, Maryam is fighting every way she can to gain custody of her children, and 16-year-old Ziba wants to divorce her 38-year-old husband. The fact remains that Iranian law favors men, and a woman can only divorce her husband on extremely limited grounds – if he lied when their marriage took place, for example, or if he is insane, or a substance abuser. And yet, as we watch these fearless women plaintiffs, wrapped in their chadors, lock horns with judges, husbands, and fathers with a power that belies their subordinate position, this often-hilarious documentary proves once again that a people cannot be judged by their legal code. And while the two directors are clearly opposed to these unfair divorce laws, their film nevertheless manages – many a time and with admirable impartiality – to make us sympathize with the browbeaten defenders of the regime.