Tehran metropolis and the emergence of symptoms of new form of the Male-Female Relationships; The study of the fields, processes and consequences of cohabitation

Abstract

Nowadays, we can see a new form of relationships between males and females, called non-marital cohabitation (concubinage) that is known as”white marriage” in Journalistic literature and Speaking Some youth . It seems that such a new lifestyle emerges from most of the large metropolitan areas. In this article we have tried to obtain more understanding about the effective reasons and backgrounds in the couple’s decision, who attempted to form such a relationship (non-marital cohabitation), the process that is involved in, and finally the consequences that they have actually experienced or confronted. Using the free and depth-interview techniques as well as grounded theory, data were gathered and analyzed from 16 cohabited couples. After analyzing the research findings, categories that are consequences of this lifestyle are as follow: “reduction in family’s function and importance”, “migration”, “Tehran city without supervision” as a contextual conditions, “Negative attitudes to customary marriage”, “feminist beliefs” and “lack of faith and adherence to religious values” as a Caused conditions, “Involved in romance”, “become familiar with cohabitation” as an interferer conditions, “cohabitation as an equal relationship”, “cohabitation as a relationship with an open end”, “satisfactory experience of this lifestyle”, “internal obstacles relations”, “external limitation of the relationship” as an interactions, “endure the disadvantage of relation’s termination” and "marriage or promise to marry in order to overcome the external obstacles". Finally, the concept of " cohabitation fleeting relationship of modern conflict with traditional values in the context of the Tehran metropolis" was chosen as a core category".

Keywords

• new form of relationship
• non-marital cohabitation
• concubinage
• white marriage