The Sociological Analysis of Narratives of Iranian Women Married to Afghan-Iraqi Men

Introduction: For many years, Iran has witnessed the influx of male immigrants from its eastern and western neighbors who entered the country in large numbers. For many different reasons, they decide to marry Iranian girls. Albeit, Iranian women married to foreign nationals do not possess a clear legal and lawful status. On the other hand, even though for these married Iranian women there is a refugee policy in terms of either returning to their homelands with their lawful husbands or to stay in Iran in a wedlock or; husbands leaving them behind and return to their homeland all together, nevertheless, this kind of marriage leave them with so much mental, psychological, economic, cultural and social sufferings. Social exclusion is a multidimensional discipline which covers ranges of economic, social and political concepts. It is defined as the lack of participation in social activities and institutions and the violation of human and civil rights of people involved.
Method: The present paper, under the umbrella concept of social exclusion, has dealt with this issue by employing the method of in-depth interview of 35 Iranian women married to Iraqi nationals and 21 Iranian women married to Afghan nationals, ages from 23 to 66 years old conducted in the city of Neyshabur, Iran.
Findings: Based on these interviews, we found that the lack of knowledge about the consequences of marrying to a foreign national, poverty and deprivation, are the main reasons for an Iranian woman marrying to a foreign national. Subsequently, by marrying a foreign national, these women would suffer from the feelings of social humiliation, misery and inequality thereof. They get deprived from their civil rights, such that birth certificate is not issued for their children thus, they would not be considered as Iranian nationals. Furthermore, although living in a grave poverty, they are not eligible for receiving any government subsidies and/or allowances.
Conclusion: Exclusion and deprivation of a woman married to a foreign national from the time prior to the marriage, living with her parents and after marriage, living in her shared marital life, exclude and deprive her from her social lives. Although exclusion of these women in their childhood period is relatively high in both groups, nevertheless in the case of Iranian women married to the foreign nationals, this amount is much higher. The feeling of humiliation is also higher in the Iranian women married to Afghan nationals than in women married to the Iraqi nationals. The accumulated exclusion and deprivation among the women under study are correlated to the family structure, chronic and inter-generation poverty and their present condition.