Qualitative study of early marriage of women in Ahvaz city

Early marriage, which is known as a global problem, is still widely practiced in Khuzestan province and Ahvaz city. This qualitative study aims to discover and interpret the formation of early marriage from the point of view of married girls and has been conducted with a descriptive-interpretive phenomenological approach. The participants in the research have been selected by purposive sampling method and are interviewed in-depth using open-ended questions, and the information has been saturated with 22 participants. The data obtained after each interview has been analyzed with Smith's (1997) thematic model. Descriptive information obtained from the interview using the researcher's observations and notes and constant comparisons obtained 34 primary concepts, 11 sub-categories and 4 main categories. The findings show that four groups of contexts play a role in the formation of early marriage of women in Ahvaz city, which are: cultural contexts (belief in the effectiveness of early marriage, traditions of patriarchy and family marriage, and lifestyle in accordance with the conditions), social contexts (confirmation by marriage, expedient marriage and freedom from family problems), economic conditions (financial facilities for the marriage process,motivation to finance and freedom from financial problems) and personal factors (misconceptions about joint life and negligence and neglect of responsibilities) cohabitation). As a result of early marriage of women in Ahvaz city, it is mainly rooted in cultural and social contexts, then economic conditions and personal factors.