Iran’s judiciary has banned a magazine for encouraging cohabitation, according to an Iranian newspaper.

Sex outside marriage is crime under Iran’s sharia-based laws, punishable by flogging. In cases of adultery, it can carry a sentence of death by stoning.

Last year, the magazine Zanan-e Emrouz (Today’s Women) published a special issue discussing various aspects of cohabitation, dubbed “white marriage” in Iran, and the reasons behind what it said was the increasing number of unmarried Iranian couples living together.

“The press watchdog banned Zanan-e Emrouz monthly today for encouraging and justifying ‘white marriage’,” the Shargh newspaper reported on Monday.

Last year, the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered a clampdown on cohabitation..

The youth affairs and sports ministry has blamed the media for fuelling interest in a practice the country’s hardline clerical rulers call an “ominous marriage” that shamefully flouts Islamic values.

Iranian law makes it more difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce than a man, which may be behind the cohabitation trend. Officials deny this discriminates against women, saying it is simply the application of sharia rules.

According to Iranian media, around 20% of marriages in Iran end in divorce, mainly because of economic hardship, adultery and drug addiction.

While disapproving of cohabitation, Iran allows the traditional Shia temporary marriage or “sigheh”, under which a couple can contract a marriage lasting anywhere from a few minutes to 99 years.

Iranian rights activists have criticised this option as sexist.