A Study on the Psychological Challenges of Iranian Women Married to Foreigners; Case Study: Afghan Men

This qualitative research aimed to investigate the psychological challenges of Iranian women married to Afghan men by the methodology of descriptive phenomenology (lived experience). The population included women married to Afghan men in Fars Province. 20 women were selected by the judgmental sampling, based on the theoretical saturation of the semi-structured interviews. Data validity was examined based on reliability and transferability, and the data were analyzed by thematic analysis. The results showed that there were two general categories of psychological challenges including the harms of mate choice and the harms of psychological safety. The harms of mate choice included nine basic themes (poverty, the lack of awareness, the illiteracy of girls, the illiteracy of parents, the increment of age, the number of girls and financial need, being a burden, and the increment of same marriages), three organizing themes (economic, social, and cultural conditions), and one comprehensive theme of the second level (inevitability of choice). In addition, the harms of psychological safety included 22 basic themes (being imprisoned at home, night attack, physical violence, love, empathy and sympathy, independence, abandonment, competence, the right to choose, individuality, femininity, progress, compulsion in relationship, depression, low self-confidence, physical pains, being loved, earning, meeting basic needs, not paying attention to mental conditions, nervousness, and coercion for unconventional sex), nine organizing themes (life safety, emotional safety, power, freedom, self-knowledge, economic needs, psychological disorders, physical disorders, and sexual needs), and four comprehensive themes of the second level (feeling of safety, identification, basic needs, and physical and psychological disorders). According to these results, the need for attention to and legal arrangements for the marriage of Iranian women with Afghan men is inevitable and the personal and social harms can be prevented with appropriate precautions.