Bahá'í marriage requires the consent of all living natural parents of both parties. The requirement is unconditional: it applies regardless of the parents' religion, regardless of whether they have been in contact with the child, regardless of the couple's age, and there is no appeal to any Bahá'í institution, which has no power to waive it. Consent is not required from a parent who is legally established as unlocatable or who has been deprived of parental rights. The stated purpose is to strengthen the ties between families rather than to control the couple, and the writings frame it as an obligation on the couple to seek unity rather than an entitlement of parents to veto arbitrarily. In practice it is the most discussed rule in the faith, and it produces genuinely painful cases — engagements of years ended by a parent's refusal. The vows themselves are minimal: both parties say the same sentence, We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God, before two witnesses acceptable to the Assembly.