Explaining the situation of female students praying in university dormitories: a qualitative study

Prayer is the highest expression of obedience and worship. The university has an important duty to revive authentic Islamic values. According to this Qualitative research provides in-depth information based on finding solutions to a specific problem Therefore, considering the place of prayer and the importance of access to appropriate and sufficient information about praying, this study was conducted with the aim of Explaining the situation of female students praying in university dormitories.

Methods and Materials: 

This qualitative study is of the content analysis type and with the participation of 20 female students living in the dormitories of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, who were selected by targeted sampling method with maximum diversity. Data were collected using in-depth and unstructured interviews and continued until data saturation was reached. Data analysis was done continuously and simultaneously with data collection and in a comparative manner.

The average age and length of stay in the student dormitory were 25 years and 12 months, respectively. Four central themes including: "What attracted me", "I feel like praying", "My beliefs" and "Substitutes for prayer" and 15 sub-categories that expressed the participants' understanding of praying, during the data analysis process appeared.

The students' perspective has had a great impact in persuading or dissuading them from prayer. Misbeliefs and alternative choices for prayer cause slippage in the religiosity of the young generation. Knowing what makes young people eager to pray can be of great help to officials and planners to make them more willing to pray.