This edited volume brings together contributions of authors who engage with the marriages of Twelver Shi'a Muslims in Iran, Pakistan, Oman, Indonesia, Norway, and the Netherlands. With the wide geographical spread, the book offers the first comparative study of the diverse ways in which Shi'a Muslims enter into marriage.

Series Foreword by Péter Berta  Introduction  ANNELIES MOORS AND YAFA SHANNEIK PART ONE Gender and Generation: New Dating and Marriage Practices 1 Marriage Modifications in Aliabad: Social Change Overrides Clerical Directives  MARY ELAINE HEGLAND 2 The New Marital Romance: How Bollywood, Islamic Doctrines, and Mobile Phones Dissect the Imperative of Spouse Evasion  ANNA-MARIA WALTER PART TWO Dower Practices: Signifying Religion, Ethnicity, and Class 3 The Dower (Mahr) and Wedding Ceremony among the Shi‘a of Oman: Religion, Class, and Ethnicity  JIHAN SAFAR 4 Mahr Iranian Style in Norway: Negotiating Gender Equality and Religious and Cultural Belonging through Transnational Shia Marriage Practices  PART THREE Temporary Marriage: A Flexible and Controversial Institution 5 Mut¿a Marriage among Youth in the Non-Shi‘i Environment of Indonesia  EVA F. NISA 6 Between Love and Sex, Modernity and Archaism: Iranian Students’ Discourse in the Netherlands about Sigheh  SOPHIE-YVIE GIRARD 7 “Laboratory Sigheh”: The (Dis)Entanglements of Temporary Marriage and Third-Party Donation in Iran  TARA ASGARILALEH AND ANNELIES MOORS Acknowledgments  Notes on Contributors  Index