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The Social (Re)Construction of 'Urfi Marriage

Shahrani, Shahreena

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
In the past, urfi marriage was used to describe all social and religious marriages in Egyptian society. However, when Egypt imposed the requirement for marriage registration, in 1931, it created a rupture between the established culture and modern laws, rendering the traditional definition of urfi marriage obsolete. Since the late twentieth century, urfi marriage has been re-imagined as a viable alternative to legal marriage by those who find the modern marriage tradition socially or financially unviable. This study seeks to understand the complexities in reconstructing and redefining urfi marriage and ponders whether this contemporary social practice-in one or more variations-will one day become fully accepted in Egyptian society. In order to accomplish this, I draw on Berger and Luckmanns classical work on the social construction of reality to shed light on how various popular discourses—film, blogs, legal discourse, television and others—interrogate the category of urfi, contest its definition as deviant, and seek to unpack the on-going social negotiation surrounding its multiple and conflicting meanings in order to understand why it has re-emerged and gained legitimacy among many segments of society. Like my research into the treatment of urfi and related topics as obliquely presented through the artistic medium of film, field research of online resources also allowed me to gain a broader understanding of the perceptions, meanings, and ideas associated with marriage as well as of the current practices of urfi marriage, often considered a taboo topic, by varied segments of Egyptian society. Because marriage is such a powerful icon for coming of age in Egypt, in the end, this debate on what forms of urfi marriage will emerge as acceptable will have far reaching repercussions on other complex, intertwined issues such as individual freedom, adulthood, familial and societal duties, individual choice in marriage, hereditary rights, ethics of medical science, morality, and, especially the relevance and the integration of young adults in contemporary and future Egyptian society.
Sabra Webber, PhD (Advisor)
Morgan Liu, PhD (Committee Member)
98 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shahrani, S. (2010). The Social (Re)Construction of 'Urfi Marriage [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1276045137

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shahrani, Shahreena. The Social (Re)Construction of 'Urfi Marriage. 2010. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1276045137.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shahrani, Shahreena. "The Social (Re)Construction of 'Urfi Marriage." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1276045137

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)