IRANIAN POLICE LABEL RELIGIOUSLY-BACKED TEMPORARY MARRIAGE AS FRAUDULENT SCHEMES

Sat 24 May 2025:

Iran’s top cybercrime official said that many websites and online platforms advertising sigheh or temporary religious marriage are designed to defraud users, even after an investigation by Iran International last week demonstrated it was a genuine industry.

“Many users fall for false promises and suffer serious financial and reputational damage,” said Vahid Majid, head of Iran’s Cyber Police (FATA), in remarks to Tasnim, a news agency affiliated with the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

He said the police were taking “consistent and firm action against websites facilitating sigheh, matchmaking.”

Majid added that victims often avoid filing complaints due to concerns over honor and privacy, hampering legal follow-up.

Police continue to track offenders even in the absence of formal complaints, he added, warning that “sigheh-related pages were under full surveillance.”

The remarks followed Iran International’s reporting last week that while many of these platforms are indeed fraudulent, some do function. The outlet contacted several Telegram channels and found that in some cases, women responded, sent voice notes, or even agreed to meet in person in case of a cash exchange.

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Although the Islamic Republic denies endorsing these services, the investigation pointed to a functioning market where sex work is marketed as religiously-sanctioned contract marriage.

On messaging apps like Telegram, channels advertise “Islamic marriage services.”

The language is coded—halal sigheh, “marriage under sharia supervision,” or “regulated Islamic companionship” — but the business model is simple: pick, pay and meet.

Under Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim legal code, men are legally permitted to enter into temporary marriages for a fixed period—ranging from minutes to years—without court approval or official registration.

These marriages automatically dissolve when the agreed-upon time expires.

According to the Iran International encountered a functioning industry of religiously sanctioned pimping, one that exploits the legal ambiguity of sigheh to facilitate sex work. Many users are conned. But some are not.

The channels involved do not describe sigheh as a sexual service. Instead, they variously frame it as a “pious alternative to sinful behavior”—“a way to support chaste women,” one wrote.

Listings often include physical traits, education level and place of residence. Some promise “virginity guaranteed.” Longer-term packages come with varying price tags—often higher for women labeled as educated or Tehran-based.

“We only use women who are under the protection of the Islamic Republic. No funny business. Everything is legal under sharia,” wrote another channel.

An apparent official tolerance of sigheh as a moral buffer against paid sex appears to have opened the door to commodifying women under theological cover. Prostitution is criminalized and punished, yet sigheh remains legal and broadly interpreted—creating a religiously sanctioned loophole.

“Pimping is illegal,” said a Tehran-based legal expert who requested anonymity for security reasons. “But sigheh offers a loophole. If the woman agrees, there’s a contract, and it’s framed as religious—who’s going to prosecute it?”

The line between religiously permitted marriage and outright sexual commerce is not just blurred—it has become a business model. For the Islamic Republic, it is one that hides in plain sight, cloaked in doctrine and fueled by tanking standards of living and deepening poverty.

Far from being limited to scams, the sigheh economy has become a channel for monetizing sexual access under the guise of religious propriety.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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