Eliyeh Delavari traditional fiqh, there is the principle that a marriage exists when both parties claim that it does. Following this principle, Article 1062 of the Civil Code states that “marriage takes place by proposal and acceptance in words which explicitly convey the intention of marriage”. An unregistered marriage is legal where the parties concerned claim that such marriage exists and can be registered later by declaration. In this case they are only required to have their marriage registered69. 3.6.2. Establishment of Parentage in Cases of No Marriage: Position of Children Born Out of Wedlock A child born from a non-marital relationship [zina] will not be legally connected to the parent. These are the words of Article 1167 Civil Code. Zina is defined under Article 222 of the Iranian Criminal Code as the following: the intercourse between a man and a woman who are not married to each other and who have not had intercourse based on a false assumption of an existing marriage between them. There is no method under traditional Shi’a fiqh, to establish a legal connection between a child born out of wedlock and his/her biological parents. Article 1167 Civil Code is founded on the same rule70. However, this issue has always been subject to large legal debates in Iran. The issue was raised first by Ayatollah Khomeini in his book tahrir al-vasilih in which he argued that a child born out of wedlock must be granted certain rights towards his/her biological parents, while parentage could never be established. From that point, the debates in academic writing were divided. Some argued that the children are at no fault and therefore should enjoy all the rights and protection stipulated for children born in wedlock. The dominant view was, however, that such children have no rights towards their parents and it is for the society to take care of them. The argument was that, illicit non-marital relationships will be encouraged by granting legal protection to such children71. Eventually, in a desperate need for clarification, in 1997, the Plenary Assembly of the Iranian Supreme Court issued a plenary judgment declaring that in this scenario the biological parents are considered as legal parents with all the rights and responsibilities attached to it except for inheritance72. This ruling was mainly based on Khomeini’s statement as well as Article 884 of the Civil Code. According to this Article, a child born from zina will not inherit from his/her biological parents, nor from their relatives. The court further ruled that the biological father is obliged to register the child and apply for an identity card for the child. Although the child will be provided with a name and an identity card following the registration, it was stressed that this does not lead to the establishment of parentage between the biological parents and the child. It 69 According to Article 32 of the Iranian Civil Registration Law, an unregistered marriage can be registered at the Civil Registry Offices by an official declaration in which both parties have acknowledged the existence of marriage between them. Iranian Civil Registration law, 7 July1976, available at: https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/97466. 70 ‫دوره ﺣﻘوق ﻣدﻧﯽ ﺧﺎﻧواده‬،١٣٩٣، ١۵‫ ص‬،‫ﻧﺎﺻر ﮐﺎﺗوزﯾﺎن‬، ٢ ‫ﺟﻠد‬. (Naser Katouzian, Civil Law Course: Family, Vol.2, 2014, page 15). 71 ١٣٨۶، ۶۵‫ص‬، ‫ ﻧﺟﺎد ﻋﻠﯽ اﻟﻣﺎﺳﯽﺣﻘوق ﺑﯾن‬، ‫اﻟﻣﻠل ﺧﺻوﺻﻲ‬. (Nejad Ali Almasi, International Private Law, 2007, page 65). ‫دوره ﺣﻘوق ﻣدﻧﯽ ﺧﺎﻧواده‬،١٣٩٣، ١۶‫ ص‬،‫ﻧﺎﺻر ﮐﺎﺗوزﯾﺎن‬، ٢ ‫ﺟﻠد‬. (Naser Katouzian, Civil Law Course: Family, Vol.2, 2014, page 16). 72 Islamic Parliament Research Centre Of The Islamic Republic Of IRAN, the Plenary Judgment of the Supreme Court on the Establishment of Parentage and Obtaining an Identity Card, 1997, available at: https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/101524. 10 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/13- © 2020 Author(s)