The Tradition of Marriage Meditation: from Problem Identification to Educational Empowerment (Case Study: Marriage Meditation in Mashhad)

Marriage mediation is one of the traditional processes in starting a family. Revival and strengthening of marriage meditation through educational empowerment of mediators has an effective role in facilitating marriage and preventing the harm of divorce. Accurate understanding of marriage mediation problem and needs is a one of the main prerequisites of the effective educational empowerment. Therefore, this study by using a mixed method seeks to identify problems and needs of marriage mediation in Mashhad and its relationship with educational empowerment from the perspective of family experts. At the first, the focus group was conducted and then a researcher-made questionnaire was designed and was distributed between 600 of 996 marriage meditators. According to the results, needs such as "the ideological awareness and commitment of the marriage mediator, the ability to assess the readiness of the girl and the boy for marriage in terms of social and emotional maturity, effective communication, the issue of verification, etc." were most prevalent. Also, interview to experts in order to more accurate examination of educational needs and its relationship to educational empowerment highlighted priorities such as "the skill of detecting the readiness and maturity of the individual for marriage, being in the same level, the patterns of introducing the girl and the boy in the marriage mediation, the skills of effective communication, art of expression, etc." Finally, according to the obtained information, an initial model for empowerment of marriage mediators in three level introductory, semi-specialized and specialized were suggested by the present study researchers.