The Effectiveness of Religious Beliefs and Ritual-Based Psychotherapy on Enhancing the Quality of Life in Fertile and Infertile Women

The aim of this study is to identify fertility and infertility rituals in Ilam County and to examine the beliefs and convictions of the local population through the lens of Bronisław Malinowski’s functionalist school, Clifford Geertz’s interpretive and symbolic anthropology, and Arnold van Gennep’s theory of rites of passage. This study is qualitative in nature and follows a descriptive-analytical approach in terms of data collection. The target population consists of all key informants among the female community who possess relevant knowledge about fertility and infertility beliefs and rituals in Ilam County. Based on the principle of data saturation, 25 informants were selected through snowball sampling. Data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. For the extraction and categorization of data, the researcher employed a coding method involving both open and axial coding techniques. The findings of this study reveal that fertility has historically served as the sole criterion for women’s acceptance in traditional societies. After childbirth, various rituals rooted in folk beliefs are performed to integrate the child into the community. The diverse recommendations surrounding pregnancy, infertility, and miscarriage align with certain Islamic scholarly views, indicating that medical knowledge has been orally transmitted to the broader society.