“From Arranged Marriage to White Marriage” - Part 18 of the Roqe Media series, The Contemporary History of Iran. Despite the abrogation of women’s rights and progressive family laws after the 1979 revolution, a fascinating new trend has emerged in modern Iran: Cohabitation of unmarried heterosexual partners where living spaces, rent, and groceries are shared - in defiance of laws that prevent such activity. Despite the condemnation of the Islamic Republic, the practise of so-called, “White Marriage” has emerged, where women and men in Iran voluntarily choose to live together without formal commitment, or fear of social and religious stigma, or fear of political consequences. Dr Janet Afary, the Mellichamp Chair in Global Religion and Modernity and a professor in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the award-winning author of a new book, “Iranian Romance in the Digital Age,” joins Jian Ghomeshi from California to give context for the plight of women in Iran over the last century, the impact of the Pahlavi years and ’79 revolution on family laws and marriage conventions, and insights into why undocumented heterosexual cohabitations are rapidly becoming an urban norm under a regime that has banned them.

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