In contemporary Iran, divorce is not merely a legal event but a gradual and meaning-oriented process shaped within marital relationships, social structures, and individuals’ inner experiences. This study aimed to explore women’s lived experiences of the decision-making process leading to divorce. Adopting a qualitative research design and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study purposively recruited 12 women at different stages of the divorce process, along with four professionals involved in divorce-related services. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a narrative-oriented approach and analyzed within the IPA framework.



The findings indicate that the decision to divorce is neither sudden nor attributable to a single factor; rather, it emerges through a multi-stage and multi-layered process formed by the interaction of three experiential levels. The relational level includes various forms of violence, emotional erosion, breakdown of trust, infidelity, family interference, and role-related inequalities. The intrapsychic level encompasses doubt, emotional dependence, fear of loneliness, a sense of impasse, and processes of self-redefinition. The structural level involves economic pressures, employment instability, addiction, prevailing cultural norms, and the limited effectiveness of formal reconciliation mechanisms. Certain critical events—such as the discovery of infidelity or experiences of severe violence—function as turning points that accelerate the decision-making process.



Overall, divorce appears less as a discrete decision than as a process of redefining the self, the marital relationship, and future prospects within a context of emotional and structural erosion. Accordingly, counseling and support interventions should adopt a stage-based approach and be grounded in women’s lived experiences.