Divorced Women's Lived Experiences, Processes, and Challenges: A Phenomenological Study (Case Study of Saqqez City)

Although divorce affects many parts of the society including spouses، children and، families، the entire social life cycle of individuals، the kind of individuals'' experiences، based on their gender، Subjectivity in the process، degree of involvement. It may be perceived by the individuals as a positive or a negative experience. Given the differences in divorce men''s experiences and the fact that some cultural factors in the Kurdish society reduce woman''s role to an object in the marital life، this study was done to find Kurdish divorced women''s life experience and to arrive at an understanding of their challenges and growth opportunities. Hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used in this study. The number of participants based on purposive sampling includes 19 divorced women in the Saqqez city. The theory developed and proposed by Kaslue and Mezirow was used as the framework for organizing the data and through the individual interviews the following themes were derived: 1. the process of divorce; 2. the consequences of divorce; 3. self-perceptions; 4. personal emotions; 5. behavioral reactions to divorce and 6. attitude toward divorce.