Many Iranians object to reports of a new bill, reportedly under consideration in parliament, that would grant citizenship to foreigners if they enter a temporary Shi’ite marriage (sigheh) with an Iranian woman. The anger reflects deep resentment toward the estimated eight million undocumented Afghans in Iran and the tens of thousands of Iraqis linked to pro-Tehran militant groups.
On October 15, 2025, the conservative daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami reported that the government sent a draft immigration bill to parliament and that lawmakers had expanded it to include the controversial citizenship clause. The newspaper, run by cleric Masih Mohajeri, often strikes a critical tone toward hardliners, though most observers still consider him a traditional conservative.
Critics warn that such a law would flood the voter rolls with millions of Afghans and hand citizenship to thousands who fought in Syria.
Social media users accuse hardline lawmaker Mohammad-Saleh Jokar of pushing the measure, which they call a betrayal. Critics warn that such a law would flood the voter rolls with millions of Afghans and hand citizenship to thousands who fought in Syria for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Beyond swelling the citizen population by roughly 10 percent, the measure also could open the door for Afghan fighters to claim military and government posts—along with benefits denied to most Iranians.
Jokar later denied that the bill includes such provisions, but few Iranians accept his word. Authorities have kept the government draft under wraps and conducted committee debates in secrecy. Outrage spilled onto social media. One Iranian journalist wrote on X: “Hey uneducated, beggarly Afghan men—come to Iran, take our girls in temporary marriage and enjoy government services and citizenship.” He added that Iran sacrificed 300,000 martyrs in the Iran-Iraq War only for parliament to approve such a law today.
Earlier this month, large protests broke out in Hamadan after government-sponsored Iraqi students were said to have harassed Iranian women on campus and in the streets. Many believe these students belong to Iraqi Shi’ite militias backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which uses them to project influence across the region.
The Afghan influx has fueled public anger since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Even state-controlled outlets have urged the government to impose controls or deport illegal migrants. The government, which did not attempt to control the border, launched mass deportations after Israeli airstrikes on Iran in June. Authorities claimed to have expelled more than one million Afghans, yet their numbers grew from two million in 2020 to ten million in 2025.
The law enshrined a privilege for men, rooted in both Islamic law and cultural tradition.
For a century, Iran—like most Middle Eastern states—tightly restricted citizenship. Since the late 1920s under Reza Shah Pahlavi, only children born to Iranian men and foreign women received automatic citizenship. Foreign men married to Iranian women, and their children, could not. Foreign women who married Iranian men could apply, but the process offered no guarantees. The law enshrined a privilege for men, rooted in both Islamic law and cultural tradition. In practice, men could unilaterally divorce their wives, while women could not travel without the written consent of their husbands or fathers.
The alleged new measure flies in the face of the Islamic Republic’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, which treats the man as head of household and grants women far fewer marital rights. To many Iranians, granting foreigners citizenship through sigheh represents a profound insult.
Social media reactions capture the fury. One post read, “Parliament’s actions will almost certainly push the country toward widespread chaos. If you ignore the warnings of concerned citizens, you will make the situation even worse. Shamelessness and selling off our country are intolerable. We will not remain silent in the face of this ‘organized betrayal.’”
An Iranian analyst in London told the Middle East Forum he doubted parliament would make temporary marriage a condition for citizenship, since most Iranians view sigheh as dishonorable. He suggested lawmakers might instead sell citizenship outright, filling regime coffers during a severe economic crisis. While unpopular, such a move would provoke less outrage than linking citizenship to temporary marriage.
The regime often tests the public by floating an extreme option, then retreating to a “lesser evil” to defuse criticism. Yet the broader picture remains clear: the clerical establishment and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tolerate—and even encourage—the growing presence of Afghans and Iraqis in the country.
