Probing Wisely into (Dys)Functions of the Conditions in the Marriage Contract in the Context of Family

The conditions in the marriage contract are among Islamic arrangements for strengthening families that they allow them to be flexible and compatible in different time and place situations. These conditions, like other legal rules, are affected by social pressures and they are responsible for social needs. Therefore, they are expected to create an approximate balance between family and social needs, and social pressures and legal rules; but it may not work in practice. The aim of this research is to investigate their efficiency. The research data were collected using semi-structured interviews with legal experts and sociologists in the field of family (including judges, sociologists, lawyers, university professors, and counselors) and the themes of (dys)functions of these conditions were extracted by the thematic analysis method. According to the results, their positive and negative functions are placed in subsidiary themes of obvious positive functions (including facilitating women's divorce in difficult situations and realizing women's rights), obvious negative functions (including rising divorce rates, increasing emotional divorce, and the view that signing the conditions is compulsory), hidden positive functions (including adjustment of power and violence in families), and hidden negative functions (including the abuse of some women, women's situations after divorce, and the lack of men's demand for divorce and its subsequent disputes). The results showed that current gaps have caused these conditions to be far from their own real position.