Living Experience of Divorce (Case Study: Absolute Women in Darahahr - Ilam)

Divorce is the annulment of a marriage contract between man and woman, which has many consequences. Divorce has different meanings for men and women. This study aims to study the life experience of women from the phenomenon of divorce. Due to the constructural nature of the phenomenon under study, the paradigm of qualitative research and considering that the knowledge of women's life experience is intended, the research method is phenomenological. The target population includes all divorced women in Darahahr city of Ilam province. The number of participants according to the principle of theoretical saturation is 20 people. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. The findings confirm that the negative dimension of divorce for women includes emotional distress, crisis of independence, social exclusion and restrictions on remarriage. The dimension of divorce includes social support and social acceptance and sustainability and longevity. The semantic meaning of divorce includes two conflicting categories, one is divorce as freedom and the other is divorce as re-entanglement. Before marriage, women considered the man as a reliable partner, but after divorce, the man was considered as an unreliable partner. The result indicates that intense social stigma and stigma have led to the social exclusion of divorced and distressed women.