Through Unknown Doors

Author : kameel Ahmady
Publisher : Avaye Buf
ISBN 13 : 8793926855
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (939 download)

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Download or read book House with open door written by kameel Ahmady and published by Avaye Buf. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: House with Open Door A Comprehensive Research Study on White Marriage (Cohabitation) in Iran By: Kameel Ahmady The study reported in this book by the British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady considers both legal and informal coupledom in Iran. It is hugely broad in scope and also detailed in specifics. In considering the factors which shape young Iranian’s decisions about heterosexual relationships Ahmady takes us from the end of the secular era of the Shahs of Iran to the modern day ultra-religious administration. We are also guided across many regions of the globe, and across cultures, from the largely closed communities of decades ago, to the present age of instant global communication and influence. Ahmady’s endeavours explore a way of living and understanding society that most in the West have rarely encountered. We may know that in some countries bigamy, even polygamy, is still permitted; we may even know that in some places children are permitted to be married at a very early age (often, in Iran, girls to older men – but never forget that some western states also permit very young people to marry). What we are less likely to know however is that Iran has specific contemporarily reiterated legislation allowing ‘temporary’ or ‘white’ marriage (sigheh), whereby the licence is for a specified duration, in fact anywhere between one hour and 99 years. Nor are we likely to know that sexual involvement outside marriage is increasingly common in the Iranian metropolises, but also, as confirmed by post-Millennium legislation and, should the authorities so decide on the basis of the evidence, punishable in some cases by lashing, stoning or even death. Present-day Iran is a complex nation, on the one hand imbibed with centuries of deeply religious tradition and family strictures, and on the other informed about the modern world by sophisticated and easily accessible technologies available to millions of highly educated young citizens, men and women alike. In this book Kameel Ahmady sets himself the task of exploring how the contradictions between these fundamentally conflicting factors are resolved (or not) by the young people in his country of birth. As in many parts of the world, age of marriage in Iran has risen dramatically over the past few decades; the duration of ‘adolescence’ has increased significantly. Amongst the most important influences in this trend have been low rates of secure employment, unmet expectations of good jobs by both male and female graduates, housing problems, inflation, the significant costs (including mehr or dowry) of formal marriage, and poverty and the greater expectation now of autonomy and self-direction in younger adults. These factors, insofar as they are recognised at all, are a matter of concern, sometimes alarm, on the part of older family members and traditionalists who fear that their faith, culture and traditions are under threat. Thousands of young Iranians therefore live double lives – conventionally single in public, but living as ‘married’ couples in private. Since the law concedes nothing to these private arrangements, there is no protection for the more vulnerable partner, and indeed no prospect of active citizenship for any children born to the couple; these illegitimate offspring, Ahmady tells us, will not even acquire a birth certificate or rights to education. There is, he says, an urgent necessity for legislators in Iran to acknowledge and face up to these serious problems and issues. Driving the trend to illicit or temporary ‘marriage’ are a number of matters considered entirely private and personal in most of western society. Kameel Ahmady’s and his team respondents have a lot to tell us, quite explicitly, about their ‘sexual needs’ and about the necessity (according to the Iranian Civil Code) or otherwise of virginity before marriage. These are unlikely issues for discussion in most - though not all - parts of the modern world. For the first time in Iran this book will reveal the hidden and wide-angle aspects of this phenomenon at macro level, with an emphasis on the Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan metropolitan areas. #house_ with_ open_ door # Age_of_marriage_in_Iran #temporary_marriage #white_marriage #cohabitation #Cohabitation_in_Iran #White_marriage_in_Iran # sighe_mahramiat #Gender #gender_problem_in_iran #women #women_right