A Critical Study on Marriage Depiction in Iranian Cinema Based on Islamic View

In this paper, after defining the normative approach of Islam to marriage in areas such as the difference of sexual desire between men and women, the proper age of marriage, the necessity of helping one's children to marry, couple's age difference, monogamous relationship, compatibility between spouses, the process of seeking a marital partner and elements of informed choice of the spouse, it has been attempted to depict its representation in Iranian cinema. This study has been done with a quantitative content analysis. The research population consisted of Iranian movies from 1997 through 2011, where at least one of the leading roles was given to marriage. The final selection was 116 which were accessible from among 150 movies. The content analysis of the movies signifies instances of undesirable representation of marriage in the Iranian cinema: Lessening the importance of marriage as a serious institution, belittling meaningful boundaries of relations before and after marriage i.e. decreasing its religious sanctity, associating marriage with tension i.e. weakening its appeasing effect, distorting the ritual aspects of marriage, and finally offering an unrealistic treatment of the issue.