Women's Lived Experience of the Phenomenon of Early Marriage: A Qualitative Study

Child marriage creates severe challenges for girls without the necessary physical, mental, and social preparation and strength from childhood to adulthood. The Important issue in this regard is the complex and multi-level effect of this phenomenon on various aspects of the social actors' lives, which makes the investigation of this phenomenon dependent on the in-depth analysis of women's lived experience of early marriage in the social and cultural context. This research, with a qualitative approach based on grounded theory, has investigated the mentioned issue among girls aged 13 to 17 in Boqhmech village, in the central part of Chenaran City, who had the experience of early marriage, in total 10 of these girls were interviewed. Based on the results, factors such as "intergenerational custom of an early marriage", "irrelevance of girls' education", "social pressure on unmarried girls", "closed and introspective cultural environment of rural society", "centeredness of patriarchy in the social system of rural society and lack of acceptance for love before marriage" will be effective on the phenomenon of "child marriage: the combination of childish passivity and traditional authority". The participants in the research employed strategies such as "carelessness in choosing a spouse", "prejudicial in entering into married life", "hasty in teaching the principles of marriage" and "choosing a spouse in the kinship network", and accepted consequences such as "to The risk of falling physical health", "psychological pressure caused by not being ready to accept the role of wife and mother", "the continuation of social traditions supporting early marriage", "the experience of alienation from oneself in the role of the wife" and finally "social isolation".