In cases involving only the civil ceremony, voting rights
may be restored if the Assembly feels that the believers are truly repentant
and wish to comply with the Bahá'í law previously broken. The civil marriage
ceremony itself is not contrary to Bahá'í law, and therefore the dissolution of
the civil marriage is not required if the parents gave their consent. If prior
consent of the parents was not obtained, the Bahá'í ceremony may still take
place if the parents give their consent to the marriage and the Assembly is
satisfied that the consent has been genuinely and freely given and is not
conditioned by the fact that the parties have already had a civil ceremony. In
such cases the Assembly would restore voting rights immediately before the Bahá'í
ceremony on condition that it be performed.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated April 27, 1972, to a National Spiritual
Assembly; Developing Distinctive Baha'i Communities, NSA of USA, 1998 edition)
