A Match Made in Heaven: Love and Piety in Iranian Spousal Selection
Abstract: Love’s emergence as basis of marriage is a hallmark of modernity. Its compatibility with religious and traditional bases of marriage, however, is less understood. We explore the different criteria Iranians use to select their spouse as part of a broader effort to understand the complex relationships between love, religion and modernity. Love, we argue, does not mean the same thing to all, and its meaning is conditioned by the distinct historical and cultural frameworks in which it is embedded.