UNISON has called on Iran to halt moves to allow a man to marry his stepdaughter.
The regime’s guardian council has approved a bill passed by the Majlis, or parliament, for the ‘protection’ of children and young people.
It includes a clause that allows a stepparent to marry an adopted child with the permission of a court.
While this could, theoretically, apply to a stepmother marrying a stepson, the union believes that the patriarchal nature of Iranian society is such that it is most likely to apply to a man marrying a female child.
Jean Butcher, the chair of UNISON’s international committee, said: “We find abhorrent the idea that young girls can be taken as a spouse by the man they considered to be their father.
“It is regrettably a regressive step from a government that is presenting a moderate face to the world.”
UNISON is affiliated to the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR).