The Investigation of the Marriage and Divorce Status in Tabriz

This study has been carried out to investigate and analyze the secondary scale-based data and information about the marriage and divorce status in Tabriz City between 1979-1999 years. The statistical population of the present study includes four groups of married and separated people during 1979-1999. The usual family members are ranging from 15-34 years old not married people, who dwelled in Tabriz City. The present study includes 2800 samples that about 630 married, 168 divorced, and 2002 unmarried people. The results of the present study showed that Tabriz citizens pay attention to mate compatibility and the parents' involve gets down when the couples getting older. The most important criterion of choosing a mate for Tabriz women is the family and the men try to consider the former familiarity. The educated people pay little attention to dowry in compare to illiterate people and the main reason of girls' late marriage is subjected to the continuation of their education and boys' economical and financial problems.


Introduction
The family is one of the most important and oldest foundations of every social unit in the human society.Anthropologists consider the process as the most fundamental base for sheltering the family members in this case.The shelter that people can experience socialization as well; the family has been established based on a foundation being called ''the marriage''.The French anthropologist Claude Levi Stratss believes that the marriage is a kind of dramatic clash between the culture and nature or the social regulations and sexual attraction (Saroukhani, 2006, 23).Ghisi considers the marriage based on economy, unification of political and social foundation (Ezazi, 2010, 28).The process of the marriage is mostly subjected to the financial and economical aspects in primitive communities.The wedding ceremony is sometimes simple without heavy and expensive expenditure but it can be held sometimes as more complex and expensive having many culprits (Moradi Mohammad, 2007, 145).According to Allen Zhirarthe, marriage has the highest importance among the whole ceremonies and events in the human lifetime because it is a global festival being susceptible to many various social events (Saroukhani, 2006, 46).The family and marriage are complementary social phenomena that every case should be recognized by their authentic value together (Moradi Mohammad, 2012, 148).If we look at the changes of the marriage historically, there have been represented many forms of the marriage such as attractive marriage, purchasing wife, temporary marriage, interactive marriage, adjusted marriage, private marriage, experimental marriage, friendship marriage and finally marriage with spirits that every case represents the cultural various conditions in different communities and its effect on the marriage phenomenon potentially.As in Islam, it is a religious contraction that both inhomogeneous persons and usually mature cases get marry together making sexual relation to survive on the land (Bostan Hussein et al, 2006, 18).
And it is stated in the Holy Quran that "it is one of the most glorious signs of the Lord that the man has to choose a mate for making his survive on the land peacefully" (Quran, Rome: 21).
As Holy Prophet says "the marriage is the most valuable foundation than every other thing in front of the Holy Lord" (Quoted in Moradi Mohammad, 2001, 8).
Many anthropologists and marriage experts agree with the mate compatibility as the main criterion for choosing the mate in various communities.Robert Vince states that the person in the phase of choosing a mate takes up the person that he or she promises the highest satisfaction of the requirements (Goode, 1964, 38).Since the marriage foundation is established based on the family life and the divorce is considered as the destruction of the life, hence the quality and quantity of the issues regarding to these people should be carefully paid attention by family members because they can also influence on the social conditions.The social studies have shown that the war, social crisis, economical inflation can influence on the quality and quantity of the marriage and divorce.This subject has been transferred into a social issue in the communities that the Iranian society is also established in this condition potentially.However due to the impossibility of investigating the same subject through the country, Tabriz City (as one of the largest and biggest industrial cities of Iran) has been taken up as the sample of the present study.The main purpose of the study is to seek and find the documentary data all about the marriage and divorce status determining the relationship between the marriage and divorce with social issues and recognizing the problems and obstacles of the young people among Tabriz people trying to give some useful approaches to solve their problems in this pavement.

Equality in age, religion, and social status
In many communities the process of the marriage is often taken place between people that do not have considerable age difference.The equality at dwelling or living place: when the living place of boys and girls are closer together, the possibility of the marriage will be high in this case.Equality at religion: when the religious dependency is intense between the couples, the possibility of the marriage will be also keen in this regard and vice versa.Equality at the race and ethnography, social class and education: in every community, the equality is defined and established based on the cultural criteria and social affairs.Islam as a complete cultural religion generally accepts the mate equality but it tries to give a new pattern; according to this pattern, the equality of the couples should be based on the belief and morality and holy prophet says that these both cases can show pious people equality being sustainable together at their life (Vasayel Al Shiite,volume: 14,39).

Mate-seeking
According to anthropologists in traditional communities the pattern of the extended family is very common between these people and the process of the marriage can be influenced by the economical and social status of the bride and groom family members.In these communities the process of the marriage is a kind of interaction or transaction taking place between two new relatives and as a result, the subject of the love does not matter between these young people in the marriage process.The girl is asked to get marry and based on these features of the bride such as domestic skills and physical appearance is roughly emphasized in this case.The girl's family considers the boy's economical and social status as well as the boy's education and his ability to make money (Taylor, 2000, 251).The modern communities as considered as the western model has displayed another pattern to choose the mate and it is strongly established based on the love but it does not last long and when this is eliminated, it can be expected that the couples' relation will be also destructed, too.According to Islamic viewpoint, the adolescents' freedom is roughly paid attention in the process of choosing a mate.In this case, it is quoted that a person goes to Imam Sadegh and says: we are aimed at marrying together but our parents try to get marry another one and how can I get marry the daughter?Imam replied: marry the girl you love and release what your parents love out (Vasayel Al Shiite,volume 14,22).

Marriage proposal
Since the old times, it is males' task to go to proposing and the respect of the female should be strongly paid attention in this regard.

Marriage commitment
The community, legislation and the religion are three main resources making the marriage relations together.Also it should be registered into a formal and legislative notebook along with issuing a formal document (Farjad, 1993, 32).

Wedding ceremony
The wedding ceremony is one of the most common and sophisticated events in every culture globally.This includes the fact that these new couples want to begin new life together.In Islam, it is roughly emphasized on some culprits such as public ceremonies (Vasayel Al Shiite,volume 14,65).The wedding ceremony based on the cultural and climatic conditions may be held in special holidays or events.In Islamic countries such Iran, most wedding ceremonies get held in religious events or national festivals but it is prevented in mourning days respecting to the religion.

Marriage-portion
In many cultures, the marriage bond is considered as a system that belongs to many properties and commodities along together.The marriage-portion is very common in many Eastern cultures such as China, Japan, Islamic communities and many African territories.It is subjected to the price that the groom has to pay to the bride's family or being responsible for paying the same price in another time.In ancient times and in some communities the marriage-portion is established as a job for the groom to work for the groom's family members during a certain period.In sociological analyses usually the marriage-portion social approaches or functions such as guarantying the wife's economical and financial privacy and safety after divorce or death of husband is roughly paid attention and this stabilizes the marriage foundations between the couples potentially.This can be also used as a tool for the wife to make the husband under more pressure (Goode, 1960, 42-43).Islam does not make these social functions as the main regular basis of the marriage and it blames the highest marriage-portion seriously.Sometimes the marriage-portions such as training the Quran to wife has been roughly emphasized (Vasayel Al Shiite,volume 15,(9)(10)(11)(12).The weight of the related gifts has been considered as the husband's kindness towards the wife (Motaharri, 1990, 233).After the Islamic revolution victory in Iran, families paying attention to the Islamic suggestions considered the lowest marriage-portions such as five coins by the name of five members of Al Aaba, 12 coins by the name of 12 innocents, 14 coins by the name of 14 innocents with one Holy Quran and Hajj traveling and some others considered giving cash money, land, garden and gold.

Dowry
The dowry is subjected to money, property and commodity such as domestic appliances that the bride's family has to bring them to the groom's home.Here, we are confronting with many various cultural differences (Goode, 1964, 41).According to Islamic viewpoint, the dowry is considered as the foundation of new-established members being emphasized by family members to boost the new-married cases economical affairs together (Bostan Hussein et al, 2006, 53).

Divorce
The verbatim of the divorce is subjected to the separation of couple's together (Amid, Hassan, 1983, 717).Since the foundation of the marriage and family is established based on the love and intimacy, the same love and friendship or intimacy are not as imperative cases.Islam considers the marriage as the most sustainable case for the couples instead of making the divorce cases for them but it also considers the divorce as the freedom of the couples when they cannot live together.Islam suggests the kindness and intimacy, pious and soft-hearted behavior and morality, accuracy of choosing mate and the construction of sustainable family to prevent the separation and divorce.The social studies have represented that the change of marriage and divorce is coincident with the social differences influencing on the community changes.In many humanistic communities and in the years after the revolution and the forced war the degree of the marriage is reduced and the divorce is getting increased due to the financial obstacles.The social crisis and economical inflation can influence on the marriage quality.However, it should be mentioned that these effects are taking place temporarily and they are useless in long term (Moradi, 2001, 28).According to the carried out studies in traditional environments such as third world countries particularly in rural areas the publicity of the marriage is getting towards the perfectionism in compare to the industrial communities and the women are early trying to get marry than men (Taghavi and Moradi, 1990, 29).At present, the marriage and divorce have been transferred into harsh and intense social phenomena socially making many various abnormalities and criminals in a community.For the reason the researcher of the present study aims at investigating the status of the marriage and divorce in Tabriz City during 1979-1999.
In many developing communities such as Islamic contemporary communities that have been changing in terms of the social and traditional appearances, the formation and construction of the marriage is coming from the tradition and modernity cases for choosing a mate.In these communities, the adolescents play key role in choosing their mates actively.Also parents play key role in this regard.Due to many changes taken place among the families, many communities have been intended the new patterns over the family affairs (Navabinezhad, 2007, 68).In relation to the mate-choosing case, the related case is not only relied on some limited cases or geographical and family members.The increase of the college student marriages and call-up marriages indicate these related changes.On the other hand, the type of relation and power of decision-making of the family members have been changed in this pavement.By increasing the literacy level and women's occupational affairs, the distribution of the power has been also balanced among family members.These changes have made many challenges along with the family affairs.

Methods and materials
The present study is a secondary analysis established based on the research data being carried out by the researcher and author of the present study in 1999 between Tabriz family members.This method has been mainly focused on the data analysis.The results of the study has been originated from the scale-based data of the former studies regarding to the marriage and divorce during 1979-1999 in Tabriz City.The related data have been gathered from the documents.The statistical population of the present study includes four groups of married and separated people during 1979-1999.The usual family members in 1999 ranging from 15-34 years old not married and dwelled in Tabriz City.The sample volume of the present study includes 2800 samples that about 630 marriage documents and 168 divorce documents and 2002 families and unmarried people equally have been subjected to the same process in this study.

Marital status among sample families of Tabriz City
About 86% of males have chosen their own spouse from this city (Tabriz) that about 30% of the same population get married their own alley.About 6.3% have been married other locations of the province and only 3.4% of the population have taken their own mates from other cities of the country.Hence, it is seen that the circle of the mate-seeking is not only limited to the city level.Among these marriages about 90.64% of these marriages have been taken place for one time and only 4% is taken to re-marriage case.The degrees of the marriage are getting higher in first six months but it gets down in the second half of the same six months.In the second and sixth months of the year, the degree of the marriage is getting increased but the same degree is getting down in the 11 th , 12 th and the first month of the year.The marriage age is ranging about 21.7 years old for females and 26.7 for males in Tabriz City and the age difference is about 5 years old.The family views are established based on the fact that the suitable age of marriage for women is 20-24 and 25-29 for men.The marriage age has a direct relationship with many variables and economicalsocial factors.For example, when the literacy and education level is high, the marriage age will be high, too.The marriage takes place for women fast than men and in rural traditional areas the marriage process takes place rapidly than the industrial districts.The marriage publicity of these communities is about 99.2% for women and 99% for men.Based on the obtained statistics, majority of girls' parents has agreed with allocating their daughter's marriage near to their own occupation situation.For the reason, it is proved that considering women and their equal husbands is one of the most essential foundations of the marriage purposes.

Marriage decision-making
According to the research data, women married in the recent years are completely dependent on the extended family and they little intervene in their marriage issues (14.3% for female and 21.9% for male).But when the age is getting high, the interference of the family will be getting down in this pavement.The adolescents' viewpoints are seen for the marriage process and they know how to make decision.They believe that their own comments and aspects are more important in the marriage decision.

Marriage-portion
The degree of the marriage-portion is considerably increasing.This does not influence on the degree of the marriages but it will be considered as one of the most essential obstacles of the marriages for many boys making the interruption and couples' disputes together intensifying many harsh arguments between family members of the mates.Since there is a significant direct relationship between the economical conditions such as inflation and recent expensive circumstances as well as the inauguration of the marriage-portion, it is necessary to achieve some steps to reduce and mitigate the degree of the marriage-portion.However the degree of the marriage-portion is significantly increasing in these recent years.

Dowry
Generally speaking, the relationship between the dowry and other factors can make the following results: 1-Women and girls believe to the necessity of the dowry higher than the boys and men.
2-Illiterate and low-educated people consider the dowry higher than the educated and literate people.
Many people suggest the moderate degree of the dowry and its timely delivery.

Marriage problems
The most essential problems of the marriage are as following: Economical and financial issues, housing and occupational problems.
The occupation issue for men is more important than women particularly in higher ages and it is very important for literate people in compare to illiterate people.The most important reason of girls' late marriage is subjected to the education and the boys consider the economical affairs and problems as their most important obstacle for the marriage.

Diagram 1 :
Marriage status in Tabriz City sample families about 94.5% of these first marriages take place for one time and only 4.8% are related to re-marriage.Diagram 2: Remarriages and first time marriages of Tabriz City samples

Diagram 3 :
The degree of the mate equality in Tabriz City Samples construct new family.But the most important expectations of the girls are to bring new baby making new potential family members.