On Friday the United Nations celebrated the Day of the Girl in an attempt to highlight the position of girls across the world and to improve their rights.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, however, the day was marked by the regime's Guardian Council approving a Bill passed by Iran's parliament for the "protection" of children and young people.

The Bill controversially contains a clause which allows men to marry their adopted daughters with the permission of a court.

While the law applies to both male and female adoptive parents or children, given the patriarchal nature of the Islamic republic it is most likely that it will be used in the case of girls rather than boys.

Ironically the Bill had previously been denied and sent back for review because it had originally banned the marriage of step-fathers and their adopted daughters.

The Guardian Council found this to be in contradiction with Islamic sharia law. Opposition groups have condemned the Bill as legalised paedophilia - calling for the law to be revoked and for international pressure to be brought to bear upon the government of Iran.

The abuse of the rights of women and girls is a constant concern under the regime. The catalogue of discriminatory laws and practices against women and girls is a long one.

The legal age at which girls can be married is 13 - although it is possible for them to be married before that age provided the court and the father agree.

The age of criminal responsibility for girls is only nine years old. Girls have to wear the hijab at an ever-earlier age, supposedly to protect them from lustful eyes.

A statement by Salaar Moradi, an MP who sits on the parliament's social committee, betrays the sentiments behind the Bill.

Moradi said: "An adopted child is not the same as [one's own] child. The religious teaching allows a guardian to marry his adopted daughter. When a girl enters a family, she becomes Na Mahram (non-familial) when she reaches puberty unless the oath of making Mahram, or marriage is taken."

Inside Iran Shiva Dolatabadi, head of Iran's society for protecting children's rights, has warned that the Bill implies that the parliament is legalising incest.

"You cannot open a way in which the role of a father or a mother can be mixed with that of a spouse," she said. "Children can't be safe in such a family."

Britain's Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People's Rights (Codir) assistant secretary Jamshid Ahmadi says the "outrageous" Bill "must be condemned as vociferously as possible.

"Girls must be protected from potentially being exposed to such damaging abuse. The Iranian government's efforts to portray a moderate image internationally should not divert attention from the severe violation of human and democratic rights of the most vulnerable individuals in domestic policy.

"Such measures demand an outcry to stop the introduction of new laws that may lead to the destruction of young lives."

At a time when Iran's new president is trying to promote himself as a symbol of moderation and decency, the new law exposes the reality of life in Iran for a huge section of the population.

If Hasan Rouhani is willing to be accepted as a moderate and a different type of leader in the "reformed" republic then legislation of this character must be reversed. Iran cannot operate an internal policy so incompatible with the norms of behaviour at the beginning of the 21st century.

Jane Green is Codir's national campaigns officer. Go to www.codir.net or contact [email protected] for more information.