Criticism of the Legal Limitation on Maternal Child Custody after Death of Father in the Iranian Legal System

Iranian custody laws encounter with legal gaps and challenges. One of these challenges is the interference between the mother’s custody and the paternal grandfather’s guardianship in case the father is not alive. So¡ it was expected that the Family Protection Law from 2012 pays attention to this important issue¡ namely the problems which are arisen from the lack of mother’s right to child’s guardianship in families. But the Family Protection Law did not only pay attention to important legal gaps¡ its article 43 on child custody can even cause new problems for families. According to this article¡ in case of father death¡ paternal grandfather can prevent the mother from her right to child custody. Therefore¡ this article will focus on the issue that¡ concerning legal gaps on the maternal child custody in the absence of mother’s right to child’s guardianship¡ article 43 of family protection law only causes increasing problems in the field of custody. In addition¡ this article will give some suggestions about mother’s right to child’s guardianship¡ and will offer some revisions for article 43 of the Family Protection Law. These suggestions provide that in case of deceased father¡ no one¡ in any event¡ can prevent mothers from their right to child custody¡ except in cases of article 1173 of Civil Law that is about child custody deprivation of parents.