پشنگ دلاوری

In Firdausi’s Shahnameh there are numerous families with their siblings where in the absence of father, the mother takes the responsibility. The presence of these families regardless of their mythological, heroic, or historical backgrounds has paved the way for interdisciplinary researches to recognize and unearth their issues and predicaments.Considering the significance of this issue, the present research is an attempt to introduce "mother-headed" families in Shahnameh, and  answer the question of what issues and problems these "mother-headed" families have encountered in Shahnameh which has led to their failures relying on qualitative data analysis and frequency of historical data.The results of this study shows that the number of" mother-headed" families in Shahnameh with a frequency of %11.76 is significantly close to the report provided by the Statistics Center of Iran in 2011 of the number of "mother-headed" families  (12%). It was also found that families who were rejected or abandoned by their fathers were more affected than those who lost their fathers. Other causes of failure in the mother-headed families were identified as "the mother remarrying and having children with her second spouse,"as well as "the mother's absence from the child and her lack of support for the child."

The discussion regarding the custom of parental interference and their role in their children’s marriage in the light of the latest statistics of the civil Registration Organization in 1398 based on the fact that more than 30% of marriage end in divorce is one of the chief discussions in sociology of family, therefore any research in this field that could in any way help the officials or researchers in this domain to find the underlying causes and factors in order to prevent divorce or reduce its rate would be enlightening.  Considering the importance of the subject the present article selected Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, the oldest Persian source as a statistical community that incorporates different models of marriage.  The role of parental interference in the marriage of the children was further investigated by using qualitative research method and data analysis to reveal the frequency in which this problem led to divorce in history.  The results obtained showed that in all 21 marriages fathers played crucial role in the marriages of their children while mothers were only responsible for three cases.  It was also determined that more than 60% of marriages were arranged and in all of them the father played the dominant role.  93% of arranged or imposed marriages belonged to daughters and more than 80% of the arranged marriages reported in Shahnameh were unsuccessful.