Case Studies of Temporary Marriages in Lebanon

Abstract

Building on fieldwork and ethnographic research with the representatives of the religious authorities and their followers, and taking an additional family law perspective, I study the differences in the justification of temporary marriage (zawaj al-mut‘a) among the well-to-do landed aristocracy (nouveau riche) Diaspora Lebanese Shi‘ites as well as the local poor Shi‘ite grassroots. I am particularly interested in the different patterns of cohabitation and gender relationships that arise between the two groups. My interviews – which are based on personal narratives and testimonies, life stories or histories – suggest that temporary marriage among the nouveau riche Shi‘ite Diaspora seems to have compromised considerably the notion of ‘the male provider’ or the dower as well as gender and generational relations, while it has impacted the local Shi‘ites living on the subsistence level to a lesser extent. An interesting case of the former is a religiously mixed marriage1 of a rich Shi‘ite female student to a Swiss man, who converted to Islam and replaced the temporary marriage contract with a permanent one. I compare temporary marriage narratives of popular culture and presumed ‘pious’ lifestyles to the official religious doctrines of their respective religious authorities (maraji‘). My aim is two-fold: (1) to analyse their narratives against canonical texts of Shi‘ite jurisprudence as well as Fadlallah’s, Sistani’s, and Khamina’i’s rulings/fatwas), and thus, (2) to study the wider social implementations and implications of the religious authorities’ guidelines on the practice of temporary marriage. My main informants and research sample are selected from the emulators (muqallidin) of the late Ayatullah Fadlallah (1935–2010), while a few others are from the emulators of Ayatullah Sistani (1930-) and Ayatullah Khamina’i (1939-).