Global Dynamics of Shi'a Marriages

Religion, Gender, and Belonging

Edited by Yafa Shanneik and Annelies Moors

SERIES: Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts

Rutgers University Press

Muslim marriages have been the focus of considerable public debate in Europe and beyond, in Muslim-majority countries as well as in settings where Muslims are a minority. Most academic work has focused on how the majority Sunni Muslims conclude marriages. This volume, in contrast, focuses on Twelver Shi'a Muslims in Iran, Pakistan, Oman, Indonesia, Norway, and the Netherlands. The volume makes an original contribution to understanding the global dynamics of Shi'a marriage practices in a wide range of contexts--not only its geographical spread but also by providing a critical analysis of the socio-economic, religious, ethnic, and political discourses of each context. The book sheds light on new marriage forms presented through a bottom up approach focusing on the lived experiences of Shi'a Muslims negotiating a diverse range of relationships and forms of belonging.

In this pioneering book, Shanneik and Moors have deftly amended the dearth of scholarly books on Shi’i cultures and traditions. The ethnographically diverse chapters brought together in this collected volume on the Global Dynamics of Shi’a Marriages engage with local practices as they are embedded within the wider contexts of migration, diaspora and transnationalism. It is a very timely and accessible book, and I highly recommend it. Shahla Haeri, author of The Unforgettable Queens of Islam: Succession, Authority, Gender

Global Dynamics of Shi’a Marriages is a fascinating addition to the emerging literature on marriage and sexuality in the Muslim world. Young people engage in 'dating cultures' facilitated by mobile phones, young women are reluctant to live with in-laws, and there is a growing desire for love-based marriages. While the authority of the older generation has been diminished, the move towards more companionate marriages in every Shi’a community still involves family negotiations over choice of partner, marital gifts, and wedding expenses. Janet Afary, co-editor of Iranian Romance in the Digital Age: From Arranged Marriage to White Marriage

YAFA SHANNEIK is a lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Birmingham in the UK.

ANNELIES MOORS is an anthropologist and professor emerita at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Series Foreword by Péter Berta
Introduction
ANNELIES MOORS AND YAFA SHANNEIK

PART ONE
Gender and Generation: New Dating and Marriage Practices
1 Marriage Modifications in Aliabad: Social Change Overrides Clerical Directives
MARY ELAINE HEGLAND
2 The New Marital Romance: How Bollywood, Islamic Doctrines, and Mobile Phones Dissect the Imperative of Spouse Evasion
ANNA-MARIA WALTER

PART TWO
Dower Practices: Signifying Religion, Ethnicity, and Class
3 The Dower (Mahr) and Wedding Ceremony among the Shi‘a of Oman: Religion, Class, and Ethnicity
JIHAN SAFAR
4 Mahr Iranian Style in Norway: Negotiating Gender Equality and Religious and Cultural Belonging through Transnational Shia Marriage Practices

PART THREE
Temporary Marriage: A Flexible and Controversial Institution
5 Mutʿa Marriage among Youth in the Non-Shi‘i Environment of Indonesia
EVA F. NISA
6 Between Love and Sex, Modernity and Archaism: Iranian Students’ Discourse in the Netherlands about Sigheh
SOPHIE-YVIE GIRARD

7 “Laboratory Sigheh”: The (Dis)Entanglements of Temporary Marriage and Third-Party Donation in Iran
TARA ASGARILALEH AND ANNELIES MOORS

Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Index

Related Titles

Islamic Divorce in the Twenty-First Century

A Global Perspective

Edited by Erin E. Stiles and Ayang Utriza Yakin