Mehrdad Babadi | Marriage Postponed: Idealism, Cynicism and Moral Ambivalence

In this presentation, Mehrdad Babadi explores the varied reasons behind the postponement of marriage among university-educated youth in contemporary Iran. Although unemployment and other economic barriers play an important role in decisions surrounding marriage delays, he argues that psychological and ideational factors are critical to fully understanding the situation of contemporary youth. These factors – the attitudes, ideas, values, and worldviews of young Iranians – have been largely overlooked in discussions of the shape and timing of contemporary marriage and bear closer scrutiny. Three main psychological orientations or themes are repeatedly expressed by the interlocutors while discussing their attitudes toward marriage. These are idealism, cynicism, and moral ambivalence. All three are prevalent in respondents’ life histories and commentary, and not surprisingly, while one theme is sometimes dominant in the comment of a particular respondent, more often all three are in evidence, sometimes even in the same sentence or passage.