Business-Minded Marriages and Divorces in Iran (A Sociological Study of Legal Form in Institution of Family)

Challenges of Institution of family have always attracted the concerned intellectuals in various research areas, and social planners and policy-makers considered family preservation essential for the society’s survival. Meanwhile, although, along with other institutions, Iran legal system has made itself responsible for adjusting the actors’ relationship in this arena, the unintended consequences of the imposed regulations have sparked controversies not only surrounding institution of family, but also addressing legal system. Phenomenon of business-minded marriages and divorces in recent years is a problematic sample of this case: those marriages which do not lead to the formation of family institution and divorces which do not prevent family survival. This research on the phenomena of business-minded marriages and divorces under Durkheim’s socio theoretical framework aims to investigate the socio-legal order governing the institution of the family to form it through application of Simmel’s notions. Attempts to comprehend the regulations and formation grounds of business-minded marriages and divorces by the help of participatory observation at Tehran Family Judicial Complex 2, examination of the legal deeds and judicial cases besides analysis of the contents of the profound interviews held with twenty interviewees directly or indirectly familiar with this phenomenon suggest that despite the legal system’s emphasis on the maintenance of order in society, once law is converted into a form with no social content, the legal system shall be trivial to social order. Thus, since the rights of individuals would not be met by social institutions that are supposedly expected to satisfy their needs legitimately, as the most prominent social institution, the legal system might be constitutive of critical order in itself.