Living Arrangements of Widows in Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Most Iranian women spend one-third of their lives in widowhood. This situation involves social, psychological, and economic adjustment for women who had depended totally on their husbands throughout their married lives. A fundamental characteristic of Iranian family organization is the limitation of women's role to the familial roles of wife and mother; they are not exposed to other roles and relationships as long as their husbands are alive. Hence, the death of a husband is a crisis for the widow, who then has to adopt roles with which she is not familiar and to depend on herself for esteem. The consequences of widowhood are difficult for Iranian women. This paper, then, is concerned with the adjustment mechanisms that enable widows to pass through this experience. To illustrate the situation, data from widows in Shiraz, the capital city of Fars province, are utilized in the present study. Shiraz, with a population of over 400,000 in 1976 and a diverse occupational structure, can be considered a good representative of the urban population of Iran.