Digital Romantic Chats by Muslim Married Women in the dating sites
Naima Mohammadi (Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran)
This study uses grounded theory to investigate the experiences of Muslim married women while having romantic conversations in the online dating sites. Sixteen participants were selected via purposive sampling, and the data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. The data analysis revealed that “premarital experiences in virtual space” and “chat as a remedy for loneliness” create the causal conditions of romantic chat. Intervening conditions including “unhappy marriage” and “husband’s Sexual coldness” facilitate the phenomenon. Contextual conditions, which provide the foundation for online romantic chat, are “experience of family restrictions” and “sense of freedom”. The present study is revealed that “chat in husband’s¬ absence”, “disguise the fact of being married”, “avoiding face-to-face meetings”, “cybersex”, and “online entertainment” are most common strategies used by participants. The consequences of digital romantic conversations for Muslim married women are “chat addiction”, and “feeling a sense of betrayal”. According to the results of this study “chat as a resistance against Islamic laws under the shelter of virtual space” is the core category.
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