Exploring Women's Experience of Early Marriages: A Study in Titkanlu City, Iran

Today, despite the extended awareness and knowledge of the public in the various fields, early marriages are still common in the world and Iran. North Khorasan is among the provinces with the highest number of early marriages in Iran. The current research aims to study the causal, contextual, and intervening factors affecting early marriages among under 15 year old women in Titkanlu city in North Khorasan province. The research method is a qualitative method and the grounded theory approach is also applied. The participants of the present study include 24 under 15-year-old married women from Titkanlu City, who were selected using purposeful and theoretical sampling methods. The data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed through the systematic procedures by Strauss and Corbin (1990) in three "open", "central" and "selective" coding phases. The research findings indicate that the causal conditions affecting early marriages are: individual factors, family factors, social factors, cultural factors, and economic factors. The importance of the body and the use of mass media are also known as contextual conditions affecting early marriages. Religious and traditional beliefs and hegemonic masculinity are also intervening factors that have been effective in early marriages in Titkanlo city.