New Forms of Family in Iran: Media Representation of White Marriage and Bio-Politics

New forms of family in Iran:

Media representation of white marriage and bio-politics

This paper extends emerging discussions about white marriage (Ezdevaj e Sefid)) as a new form of family in Iran (Azad, Sharifisaiy, Eisari, & Talebi, (2012), Afary, (2009) by analyzing the thematic and structural patterns of the news coverage. White marriage is an urban, middle class phenomenon among heterosexual Iranian young women and men who choose to live together without the religious and the legal approval, similar to cohabitation in the west. Drawing on qualitative research, I examine: first, how the Iranian media expresses explicit and implicit messages about white marriage; second, how the Iranian media validates the stand point of some individuals and groups but not some others; third, how the media’s approach to white marriage have been gradually re-oriented from hostility to reluctant tolerance. Debates about white marriage manifest provides us when a lens to understand contestations over ideological and religious concerns in Iran. Tracing media portrayal of white marriage and inspired by Foucauldian perspective, my main argument is that political interests gradually shifted from decisions over the existence and the non-existence of white marriage to the management of it, for the purpose of encouraging population growth. I posit that this shift is best understand it as a gradual transition from sovereign power to bio-power in Iran (Shahrokni, 2014).

Afary, J. (2009). Sexual politics in modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Azad, A. T., Sharifisaiy, M. H., Eisari, M., & Talebi, S. (2012). Ham khanegi, Emergence of New Forms of Family in Tehran. Jameh Pazhohi Farhangi (Social Cultural Research), 3(1), 43-77.

Shahrokni, N. (2014). The Mothers’ Paradise Women-Only Parks and the Dynamics of State Power in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 10(3), 87-108.