TEHRAN – The child adoption website being piloted in Tehran will be operational all over the country in the next [Iranian calendar] year (starting on March 21), the Welfare organization director for children affairs has said.

“There are some 10 adoptive applicants per child in the country,” ISNA quoted Montazer Shabar as saying on Tuesday.

Parents not having children or tending to adopt a child can refer to the website and sign up for adoption process, he added.

He went on to say that applicants are then invited to ensure that they have the required qualifications, including being mentally healthy and not having criminal records or addiction.

After the parent’s qualifications are approved, they will be on the waiting list to adopt the child, he noted, adding, the process has been cleared and easier through the website.

Ahmad Khaki, deputy head of Tehran’s welfare organization for social affairs said that the number of children adopted in Tehran increased by 25 percent in [the past Iranian calendar] year 1396 (March 2017 – March 2018) compared to the year before, as some 500 children were adopted by Tehraners last year.

Totally, some 3,600 individuals have registered for child adoption in the organization’s website, he highlighted.

Iran’s adoption and foster laws which dated back to some 44 years ago were revised and modified in 2013. Within the new law kids could be adopted up to the age of 16 while the former law states that kids aged 12 or less could be adopted. In addition to families with no child now families with one kid and single women are able to apply for adoption.

The law formerly authorized adoption only for orphans while the new law permit adoption for children with dysfunctional families as well in case the judge concludes that the new family is suitable for adoption. Earlier the adoptive families were required to sign over one third of their property to their child to-be but some could not afford to do so and now the judge gets to decide how a family, depending on their financial status, should be treated.

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