The Typology of Premarital Sex Patterns in Iran

Document Type : .

Authors

1 Lecturer at the College of Social Sciences, Tehran University

2 M.A. of Research in Social Sciences, Tehran University

Abstract

In recent decades, Iranian society has faced significant changes in youth values and beliefs. Very few researches show that premarital sex is rising in Iran. This increase has gradually led to more complexities in this area. Nowadays, premarital sex has found different kinds and origins. The goal of this qualitative research is the typology of different premarital sex patterns in Iran. In this study, 54 boys and girls who have experienced such relationships were interviewed. Research findings indicate that premarital sex patterns in Iran are divided into at least six different categories. These patterns include: 1. casual relationships (prostitution patterns), 2. Concubine relationships, 3.boy friend- girl friend relationships, 4.cohabitation relationships, 5.anti love relationships (deception patterns) and 6.relationships based on liquid love. These different patterns can be separated under three different discourses: “Pre-modern discourse” (the first and second category), “Modern discourse” (the third, fourth and fifth category) and “Postmodern discourse” (the sixth category). Each of these discourses evokes subjects in a special way and individuals have found not only different behaviors but also different values in these discourses. Pre-modern discourse has a long last history and still remains alive but nowadays beside this discourse, there are also two other discourses -modern and postmodern- in the hidden layers of urban society which despite of their differences, they both are the result of process modernity in Iranian society; the patterns which are rising in recent years by the help of changing social and economic structures and values.

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