Transformation of intimacy among university students in a transitional social context in Tehran, Iran / Samane Etesami

摘要

Making a desired intimate relationship is a challenging issue among young men andudwomen in contemporary urban Iran. The current research examined how the couples’udintimacy in intimate relationships is related with the status of modern transformation ofudintimacy. This research aimed to examine how Giddens’s (1992) theory ofudtransformation of intimacy would be applicable in the transitional urban context of Iran,udviz. in Tehran.udAn online research design and a partially mixed methods approach was used in thisudstudy. The quantitative results derived from completed online questionnaires by 567udmen and women showed a positive correlation between the level of an individual’sudtransformed attitude towards intimate relationships and gender roles and the level ofudwomen’s sexual agency. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the leveludof women’s sexual agency and the level of actual intimacy among partners.udThe combination of quantitative and qualitative results however, showed that theudtransformed intimacy has not been completely perceived or adhered to by individuals,udrather a combination of transformed and stereotypical values were practiced by theudrespondents. The in-depth interviews amongst 37 male and female respondents revealedudthat men and women treated the transformation of intimacy selectively and based it onudtheir own benefits.udTheoretical dissection suggests that the incomplete process of transformed intimacy inudthe context of the study could be explained by three sources: first, the feministudperspective of the interrelatedness of the public and private domains in the society, andudthe prevalence of patriarchal discourse in personal relationships. Second: the conditionudof the transitional social context in which inconsistency between traditional values andudnew needs are dominant, and third: the existence of the market logic in intimate life. Accordingly, the theoretical discussion suggested that Giddens’s (1992) theory ofudtransformation of intimacy is not totally applicable in a transitional social urban contextudof Iran, viz. in Tehran.