August 9, 2010

Planet Iran/Iran Press News

Planet Iran’s report on temporary marriages (Seeqeh) in Iran, was met with many and varied reactions, some people who did not find it so strange and others who refused to believe it. In today’s Iran however, truth is often stranger than fiction.

So as a follow-up, we have compiled and translated the below article published last week in one of the Iranian regime’s own media outlets. MEHR news agency reports:

Massoumeh Pareesh, a researcher in the area of Women’s Affairs who provides documentation for her research on the issue of temporary marriages, said: “The average period for temporary marriages ranges anywhere between one hour and five months and financial issues is what drives women to submit to such conjugality. This study has been conducted in a qualitative fashion and is based on in-depth interviews with women who are either in a temporary marriages or have been in one; the minimum period of the contract has been between one hour and 99 years.”

Pareesh adds: “Most of these women either were experienced housewives or had worked in service careers such as nursing. Usually women who submitted to temporary marriages had experienced some kind of family trauma or had gone through serious divorce and domestic problems.”

Pareesh believes that most of these women faced financial hardship following either a divorce that left them with no support or lost a husband who was the bread winner of the household. She maintains: “Due to a lack of governmental or real social support for these women, and especially those with children, these women have no choice but to marry. Many of these women also know that the men with whom they enter into a temporary marriage does not have adequate financial means but they took what little they received since they had no choice. The women I interviewed believe that men who temporarily marry, do this without their first wives’ knowledge and for different reasons such as the frigidity of their wives. Based on the obtained results, men are not willing to enter into long-term marriages with the women they marry temporarily. But the question remains, what are these women to do after the temporary marriage terminates, as Sharia law dictates that a woman is not permitted to remarry for a period of anywhere between 45 days to two months. Therefore now, the women are forced to marry one man after another which has turned this into a career and a form of commerce. The issue is if this is compatible with Sharia law.”

“Many women said that during their first few marriages, they felt affection for their temporary husbands but they have learned that any emotional attachment is disadvantageous and long-term marriages are often conducive to forming sentimental bonds.”

Prior to the study Pareesh believed that religious women were more likely to submit to temporary marriages but she clarifies: “The results show that neither religious not non-religious women cite their reasons for temporary marriage as prompted by their beliefs.”