Post-Divorce Self-Redefining and Identity Building in Women

Despites the many efforts for controlling and reducing divorce in Iran، the rates are growing and the number of families who have experienced a divorce is increasingly rising. The ‘post-divorce life’، an matter of trivial interest in the past، has now turned into a serious issue for family sociologists. Research findings suggest that divorce often has more negative consequences for women، one of which is identity challenges. The present study employed a qualitative approach and used semi-structured in-depth interviews with 18 women to investigate women’s post-divorce identity challenges and how they redefined ‘self’ and build ‘identity’ after divorce. “Self” is a key concept in theorizing one’s being and nature، and gives the person the ability to portray her identity. The results showed that، on the event of a divorce، many changes occurred to the image and the understanding that a women had from her inner and outer self. The results also suggested that the main areas in which the women had redefined their identity were new roles، new lifestyles، new relationships، and ontological and psychological safety. Moreover، background variables including present age، age at divorce، social class، occupational status، length of marriage، having or not having children، and a traditional or modern set of habitus influenced how women dealt with post-divorce identity changes and self-redefining.