Hard up Iranian husbands will no longer face jail for failing to pay dowries that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, following passage of a new law, it was reported Wednesday. But spouses who claim to be impecunious yet are then proven to have the means to pay can still look forward to prison. In the Islamic republic, the families of brides-to-be negotiate fiercely to get the top amount of what is known as Mehrieh, payment in gold coin-like tokens known as bahar azadi (spring of freedom in Farsi).
There are even trendy ways of doing it. A family can ask for one coin for the total number of years in the date she was born, according to the Iranian calendar. So the dowry of a 24-year-old woman born in 1370 (1991) would be 1,370 coins worth $367,000 (334,000 euros) at the current gold price. A much lower figure could be just 14 coins, equivalent to the 12 imams in Shiite Islam, plus the Prophet Mohammed and his daughter Fatima. The coins, which carry the image of the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, are about 22 mm in diameter (roughly the same as a 20 euro cent piece or five US cents).