Journal of Legal Research

Journal of Legal Research

The Effect of Unilateral Will on Marriage and Divorce in Imam Khomeini’s Jurisprudence

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Ramin Poursaied 1
Arezoo Baharloo 2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
2 M.A. in Private Law, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
10.48300/jlr.2024.446425.2613
Abstract
According to the prevailing view, a contract is formed through the concurrence of two wills and gives rise to obligations. Marriage, however, is treated as an exception insofar as the wife is accorded no role in its dissolution through divorce. Jurists have justified the husband's exclusive right to divorce by reference to Qur'anic verses that address men as the parties who divorce their wives, the well-known tradition al-ṭalāq bi-yad man akhadha bi-l-sāq, and the established practice of the religious community. Imam Khomeini, by contrast, offers an account of contractual formation in which the contract owes its existence to the unilateral will of the offeror. Leaving aside an assessment of the reasoning underlying this view, if the marriage contract comes into existence through the wife's offer and the husband's acceptance is not a constitutive element of its formation, it is difficult to maintain that dissolution lies entirely within the husband's control. Such a position would deny the party who brings the marriage into existence any role in its dissolution. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this article examines Imam Khomeini's conception of the marriage contract and its implications for the wife's right to divorce. Through an examination of his views and their application to marriage, the study argues that the wife's right to divorce should be recognized. This interpretation may call for reconsideration of certain doctrinal premises and legal arrangements governing the dissolution of marriage.
Keywords
Unilateral Juridical Act (Īqāʿ)
Unilateral Will
Imam Khomeini
Marriage Contract
Wife's Right to Divorce
The Holy Qur'an.
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Journal of Legal Research
Volume 25, Issue 66
Summer 2026
Pages 543-569