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Abstract
This article examines the nature of informal marriages using data from a 2018 survey of over ten thousand Facebook users in seven Muslim-majority countries: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, Tunisia, and Turkey. The article explores current attitudes toward informal marriages as well as the nature of such unions among the predominantly Sunni and Shiʿi Muslim social-media users who took the survey. First, the article finds that informal marriages have diffused across the Sunni Muslim world. These marriages are not necessarily loveless unions between women of modest means looking for financial support and men seeking legitimate sexual partners. In fact, the survey suggests that women in such unions are less likely to be financially dependent on their partners. Informally married spouses are as likely to say that they love their partners as those who are formally wed. However, this love, whether in formal or informal marriages, does not necessarily entail a deep bond between partners who share their most intimate feelings. Marriage—whether formal or informal—is perceived as fragile, not a lifelong commitment. The rates of divorce in the countries surveyed are approaching those in the West. These informal marriages might therefore be thought of as a new form of cohabitation, a practice increasing throughout the world.

Argues that the writings of Michel Foucault on Iran are not anomalies but are linked to his theoretical work on the discourses of power & the dangers of modernity. Unfortunately, debate has been limited by the lack of English translations of most of the 15 articles & interviews produced when he visited Iran during the 1978 revolution that overthrew the shah. Unlike many scholars, Foucault understood that Iran was experiencing a unique kind of revolution & recognized the tremendous power of the new discourse of militant Islam. He was entranced with Ayatollah Khomeini's ability to push the limits of rationality. It is contended that these writings indicate that Foucault wasn't immune to romanticized utopianism & support the claim that his critique of modernity was one-sided. They also emphasize his problematic relationship with feminism, noting that he never questioned the Islamist's notion of "separate but equal." Other issues examined include the controversy over Foucault's Iran writings in France, his call for a "political spirituality," & his accurate prediction of Islam's global reach. 8 References. J. Lindroth

In 1978 the philosopher Michel Foucault did a stint as a foreign correspondent in Iran. This volume studies the articles that resulted from his observations and meetings with leading figures in the Iranian Revolution, including Ayatollah Khomeini, together with responses from his contemporaries.

A classic of modern Persian literature, 'Charand-o Parand' (or 'Stuff and Nonsense') is a work familiar to every literate Iranian. Originally a series of newspaper columns written by scholar and satirist Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda, the pieces poke fun at mullahs, the shah and the old religious and political order during the Constitutional Revolution. Translated by two distinguished scholars of Persian language and history, this volume makes Dehkhoda's entertaining political observations available to English readers for the first time.