Table Of ContentIranian Romance in the Digital Age
Sex, Family and Culture in the Middle East Series
This innovative series explores the connections and influences impacting
ideas about marriage, sexuality, and family throughout history in the MENA region
and until the present day. Individual volumes consider the ancient, early Islamic,
medieval, early modern, and contemporary periods to investigate how traditions and
practices have evolved and interacted across time and countries.
Series Editors:
Janet Afary, Professor and Mellichamp Chair in Global Religion and Modernity,
UC Santa Barbara
Claudia Yaghoobi, Roshan Institute Assistant Professor in Persian Studies, The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Iranian Romance in the Digital Age
From Arranged Marriage to White Marriage
Edited by
Janet Afary and Jesilyn Faust
I.B. TAURIS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published in Great Britain 2021
Copyright © Janet Afary and Jesilyn Faust, 2021
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Copyright Individual Chapters © 2021 Janet Afary, Jesilyn Faust, Masserat Amir-Ebrahimi,
Ashraf Zahedi, Amir Mirfakhraie, Gholam Reza Vatandoust, Maryam Sheipari, Vahideh
Golzard, Cristina Miguel, Azal Ahmadi, Soraya Tremayne, Erika Friedl, Mary Elaine Hegland,
Behrouz Alikhani, Roger Friedland
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Glossary viii
Introduction Janet Afary and Jesilyn Faust 1
Part One Norms, Romance, and the Breakdown of Arranged Urban Marriage
1 The Emergence of Independent Women in Iran: A Generational
Perspective Masserat Amir-Ebrahimi 11
2 Romancing Filipinas: Challenges and Promises of Transnational Families
in Iran Ashraf Zahedi 32
3 Beyond the Sharia: “White Marriage” in the Islamic Republic of
Iran Gholam Reza Vatandoust and Maryam Sheipari 55
4 School Textbooks, Ideological Codes, and the Construction of the
Standard Iranian Family Amir Mirfakhraie 79
Part Two Online Dating, Hymenoplasty, and Assisted Reproductive Technologies
5 Negotiating Intimacy through Social Media: Challenges and
Opportunities for Muslim Women in Iran Vahideh Golzard
and Cristina Miguel 111
6 Recreating Virginity in Iran: Hymenoplasty as a Form of
Resistance Azal Ahmadi 125
7 Whither Kinship?: Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Relatedness
in the Islamic Republic of Iran Soraya Tremayne 141
Part Three Reconstructing Hierarchies: Rural and Tribal Marriages
8 How Marriage Changed in Boir Ahmad, 1900–2015 Erika Friedl 155
9 Changing Perceptions and Practices of Marriage among People of
Aliabad from 1978 to 2018: New Problems and Challenges
Mary Elaine Hegland 174
vi Contents
10 Changing Established-Outsider Relations?: A Case Study of Bakhtiaris
in Iran Behrouz Alikhani 197
Epilogue: The Rise in Non-standard Marriages in the Region
Janet Afary and Roger Friedland 214
Bibliography 219
Notes on the Contributors 239
Index 243
Acknowledgments
This volume emerged out of a conference on the Changing Nature of Family and Marriage
in Iran held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in November 2017 and a
subsequent international call for papers. We are grateful to Dr. Haleh Emrani and the
late Ahmad Gramian of the Gramian-Emrani Foundation, who generously supported
the conference and helped with the publication of this volume. Additional funding
was provided by the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Funds, the American Institute
of Iranian Studies (AIIA), the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education (BIHE), the Center
for Middle East Studies (UCSB), the Cross-Cultural Research and Education Institute
(CREI), and the Department of Religious Studies (UCSB). We offer special thanks
to Sophie Rudland, our Commissioning Editor at I. B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, for her
enthusiastic support throughout this project and to Nicholas Murray and Lui Cordero
for their careful editorial assistance.
We dedicate this volume to the memory of Dr. Farokhru Parsay, medical doctor,
educator, and dedicated supporter of Iranian women’s rights. Dr. Parsay served as the
Principal of Nourbakhsh High School, a highly respected public school for girls in
Tehran that produced numerous accomplished graduates during and after her tenure.
She went on to become the first woman member of parliament and the first woman
cabinet minister, serving as Iran’s Minister of Education. Dr. Parsay was instrumental
in winning women’s suffrage in 1963 and helped push through the Family Protection
Law in 1968. Soon after the 1979 Revolution, she was arrested for these activities and
executed by a firing squad in May 1980.
Glossary
‘ashāyir(pl.) ‘ashireh (sing) Tribe
ahle kitab people of the book (Jews and Christians)
andaruni inner compartment, occupied by wives,
children, and female servants; women’s
quarters
aqd nāmeh marriage contract
fadākāri sacrifice
faqih religious scholar
fatwā religious ruling
fiqh jurisprudence
gheyrat honor
govāhiye bekārat virginity certificate
ĥījāb literally meaning “cover” in Arabic; a scarf
or veil designed to cover the head and neck
of a woman; religious covering; a modest
attire and a headscarf
hodud part of sharia Islamic law that pertains to
actions that transgress the limits/laws set
by God
‘idda waiting period for a woman after divorce
Ijtihād certificate received by a cleric granting him
the right to interpret the laws of Shi’i Islam
jahiziyeh.(or jahiz) trousseau, assets or goods a woman brings
to her husband in marriage; dowry
kadkhodā village elder
khāstegāri marriage proposal
mahriyeh (also mahr/mehriyeh/mehr) marriage portion payable to the wife by
husband at any time after the marriage, but
usually paid after divorce or death of the
husband, with some similarities to alimony
marja’ (sing.) (marāje’ (pl.) religious source of emulation in Shi’i
tradition
Glos sary ix
muburāt divorce by mutual agreement
mut‘a Arabic term for temporary marriage
ne‘mat blessings
nafaqeh maintenance paid by husband to wife for
daily necessities of life
nejāsat ritual impurity, uncleanliness, from a
religious point of view
nekāh da’em (or simply nekāh) formal marriage; permanent marriage;
contracted through civil law
sharia Islamic law; rules and regulations that are
derived in principle from the Qur’an and
traditions relating to the words and deeds
of the Prophet; these rules govern the lives
of Muslims
pardeh-ye bekārat hymen
pishraft progress
sigheh (verb) to utter the formula for any contract; to
engage in temporary marriage in colloquial
Persian
sigheh (noun) Persian term for temporary marriage;
a renewable contract of marriage for a
defined duration, from a few hours to
ninety-nine years; also a wife in such a
marriage
talāq divorce initiated by a husband; repudiation
zinā fornication; one of the actions that
transgresses the hodud ordinances
