Indexation of Mahr (Dower): A Precursor of the Law of Inflation in Iran

One legal issue that has not been clarified properly by Muslim jurists is whether the creditor can claim the rate of inflation from the debtor, especially when the economy is suffering from a high inflation rate. One area where the issue of inflation was taken seriously was the payment of dower (mahr) fixed in Iranian money. Generally speaking, there was no clear ruling in the law allowing women to claim more than the face value of their dower, while the purchasing power of Iranian money had dropped steeply in comparison with the date of marriage. In order to tackle this problem, Parliament passed a very important law in 1997 (reiterated in 2013), that provides for the indexation of dower. This article deals with the indexation of money-dower and the way it is assessed under Iranian law. This law is the foundation of the law of inflation in Iran.