Marriage Obstacles in Iraqi Kurdistan Region- Duhok City

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 11. Determinants of Marriage and Marriage Timing

Abstract

Marriage is one of the topics most discussed among the Kurds. Despite the openness of the Iraqi Kurdish society to modernity and pro-western values, the social structure remains tribal and conservative. Taking an important step in one’s life such as marriage is affected by many factors in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, with and making the decision to marry is rather complicated and often expensive. Choosing a spouse involves the process of acceptance of both spouses by both their families, as well as by both sets of uncles and aunts, sometimes by both tribes, and eventually by the society in general. Wedding preparations and the wedding party proceed only after these broad acceptances occur. This complicated process that one goes through sometimes discourages youth from to marrying, instead of pushing them to marry. Indeed, both the Kurdish government and Kurdish scholars are concerned about the rise of marriage age in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. This study examines how people who are of customary marriage age perceive various obstacles to getting married. I’m specifically looking at how a long tradition of restrictions on who one should marry, substantial economics costs, and family interference in their children’s marriage decisions affect young Duhokies. I surveyed 121 people from Duhok City in 2003. The statistical software package STATA is used to analyze the data to investigate the correlations relationship between age, education, gender, and residency and views about barriers to marriage using multiple regression analysis to determine their relationship with various marriage obstacles .

Author

• Jihan Abdullah Mohammed, Michigan State University