A holy city with rampant prostitution. How temporary marriages are arranged in Mashhad

Article from the newspaper Seznam Zprávy from 1 April 2024

“In Mashhad, you can enter into a temporary marriage for a few months, for two days or even for an hour,” says Iranian filmmaker Niloufar Taghizadeh, describing the phenomenon of the ayatollahs covering up prostitution.
“Sometimes a woman has her period, sometimes she’s sick, maybe she’s travelling…” With these words, a well-known Iranian cleric explains the necessity of temporary marriages at the beginning of the documentary film Nila’s Dream of Life in the Garden of Eden.
The film, which was presented by director Niloufar Taghizadeh at the One World Festival, describes the problems and hardships faced by the children resulting from these marriages.
In an interview with Seznam Zpravy, Taghizadeh admits that the decision to make a documentary film set in the holy city of Mashhad was the most difficult in her life. She was aware that she would not be able to visit her home country immediately after the film’s release.
But in the end, the desire to help six-year-old Nila, whose story the film tells, won out. Thanks to the documentary film, Nila and her mother received a visa for Germany so that they could leave Iran. “Many people die or are imprisoned in actions against the regime, I simply can’t go back, it’s not comparable,” says the director.
Due to the success of the documentary, she was put under pressure not to distribute the film: “I’ve already had calls from people who didn’t know the main character, didn’t know anything about the film, but tried to stop it.”

Q: Your film shows the phenomenon of temporary marriages in Iran. What was it like filming in this country? The regime certainly doesn’t like to see such critical documentaries…
A: It was very complicated. I think I flew there seven or eight times. I took everything with me and always filmed something different – if they had caught me, they wouldn’t have understood what the film was about. So once I only filmed in the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the second time only at Leila’s house… It’s very dangerous. It’s one thing to criticise politics, but it’s another thing to talk about religious issues. That is a big taboo.
Mashhad is a special place, it is the home of Khamenei (Iran’s supreme leader, editor’s note) and many other political figures. Therefore, it must be perfect in the eyes of the public and no one should feel lonely or safe there.

Q: Is Mashhad special compared to other Iranian cities when it comes to temporary weddings?
A: Yes, Mashhad is famous for it. Everyone knows about it, but nobody talks about it. People only talk about it in private and joke about taking time off for a temporary marriage. Many religious people from all over the world come to the city every year, and they pray together in every mosque. The city exudes an almost holy and calming atmosphere.
However, countless marriages are performed and finalised around the mausoleum of Imam Reza. Just sit back for a few hours and watch the action. You will see many young women wearing a chador, but underneath you will see jeans and clothes that are not exactly suitable for praying.

Q: Did the main character in the film tell you what happened with her engagement? She mentions it a little vaguely in the film…
A: It wasn’t an engagement. She just told the staff so they wouldn’t judge her right away. You have to say that you entered into a temporary marriage, because romantic relationships are completely illegal. And being pregnant by an unmarried man? They would kill her, that’s a serious crime. It’s an eternal problem: either the girl has a father, in which case he has a right to her, or she has no father, in which case the mother is considered a prostitute.

Q: So how does it work in practice?
A: There are offices where you can enter into a provisional marriage. If you have proof and the child is born, it’s fine. But in Mashhad it’s very simple. It’s like you said here: “I want you for ten minutes for this glass of water.” I would have agreed and we would have had a temporary marriage. That’s very simple. Now, after ten minutes, I could say, “If you want to continue, you pay another $100 and we’ll be together for two days.”
Widows who have five children and can’t feed them…. They see a rich man and say, “Maybe we can be married once a month for a day.” But Leila was very young, she had had bad experiences in the past and agreed because she hoped it would be a normal marriage. But when she and her husband left the flat a few minutes later, the woman’s phone rang and she found out.

Q: Iran is a very religious country. How do the authorities view this phenomenon – de facto prostitution?
A: If you say you are in a temporary marriage, they consider you a second-class woman. But it is also used by young people to be lovers. They want to be free. If women are unmarried and get pregnant – I know some from school – they have to get an abortion somewhere because no one will accept them.

Q: Do you have any idea how many children born this way are living in Iran?
A: Nobody knows, but there are many. 13 million pilgrims come to Mashhad alone every year… Not for sex, of course, but for Imam Reza, but nevertheless many babies are born as a result of these journeys.
Many of them live on the street, selling flowers or something else… Each of them has a different story, and since they are children, they always hear: “You are a bastard, you are a bastard, you are a bastard.” They hear it from teachers at school, from men on the street, all the time. You came into the world from prostitution and that will be the end of you, they tell them.

Q: At the beginning of your film, one of the imams explains the necessity of temporary marriages – women have their periods, sometimes they are ill, sometimes they are travelling…
A: This funny and entertaining man was on the first programme of state television every day. He is one of the most important imams in Iran and is very close to Khamenei. Unbelievable. He says it in a funny way, but you hear these things every day right after the children’s programmes. It has nothing to do with Islam.
I know many religious Iranians who hate these circles. It was important to get this archive footage on film so that Europe knows what kind of rubbish it is dealing with. These Islamists have over 80 million hostages in Iran, it’s unbelievable and insane.

Q: The protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini have died down in recent months and are no longer under discussion. Do you see any hope for your home country?
A: Yes, I see great hope. The protests haven’t disappeared, people are just doing different things. There are various anti-regime groups that work in secret, so you don’t hear about them. It’s still going on. But all revolutions in the world take many years.
The death of Mahsa Amini was not the first event, there were already protests before that, which are gradually building up like a snowball. In the end, there will be a big change and the young people will get what they want. And then it will come at a time when we don’t expect it. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m not afraid of the price we’ll pay for it. The last few years have been very brutal and bloody, and it will continue to be difficult in the future. It’s like a cancer that you have to deal with or you won’t make it.

Niloufar Taghizadeh
She was born and grew up in Iran. She came to Germany in 1996 and then studied theatre and film directing at the Athanor Academy of Performing Arts.
In 2006, she returned to her home country, where she worked as a screenwriter. At the same time, she began her journalistic work as a producer alongside Middle East correspondent Ulrich Tilgner at the ZDF studio in Tehran.
She returned to Europe in 2012 and continued her work in Vienna until 2016. From 2018 to 2019, she wrote the script for the documentary Iran Bittersweet – A Journey through the Land of Contradictions for ZDF to mark the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. In 2019, she founded Windcatcher-Productions based in Heidelberg with the aim of producing film projects by independent filmmakers as well as her own films.
(translated)