Abstract:

Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi’i Iran written by Shahla Haeri is a valuable academic contribution about Iran’s ethnography in general, temporary marriage in particular. The book examines the institution of the Shīʿī form of temporary marriage (mutʿah) known as sigheh amongst Iranians. The central focus of this study is to discover the underlying logic of the marriage contract and its implications for gender relations in society that offers models for male-female interpersonal relationships and the form of gender’s dialectical worldview toward themselves and others (p.x). Shahla Haeri gives the legal interpretations of mutʿah made by religious authorities as an introduction to the topic in order to explain how the concept of temporary marriage differs from permanent (nikāḥ) marriage and modern forms of prostitution. The author, through the book, strongly condemns the male manipulation of the institution of temporary marriage under the justification of personal wishes and desires that disregards the woman’s social dilemmas and individual rights. The initial ignorance of sigheh women about the reciprocal rights and obligations of the spouses within mutʿah marriages is highlighted as an important reason that induces women to engage in this misunderstood marriage type with the assumption of a similarity between permanent and temporary marriage. 

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