Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract Relying on a phenomenological, inductive and exploratory approach, the present paper has been aimed at discovering men’s understanding of sexual jealousy and the situations and moments in which men feel and act zealously or remain stolid about their related females in their everyday life. We have used grounded theory as a qualitative research method. Data were collected through interviews and direct observation. The population under study includes Tehrani men aged between 20-40 years old. We have employed theoretical sampling method. We interviewed 25 men and 5 women as our sample. According to the research results, Gheirat can best be defined as men’s anxiety about levels of women’s objectification and self-objectification. By objectification, we mean reducing a woman’s whole existence to her sexuality and treating her body as a sexual object through some actions like gazing into a woman, teasing her, bodily contacts, engaging in insincere emotional relationship with her, mingling or socializing, and different levels of sexual relationships. Self-objectification also refers to the voluntary or non-voluntary but active role of women in such experiences. Iranian men experience differential degrees of anxiety towards their related females’ levels of objectification and self-objectification. A combination of the men's perception of the interaction space and the situation of the related women and other men play a decisive role in provoking different emotions and their corresponding actions. Therefore, some levels of Gheirat are to be considered as cultural and situated rather than innate emotion.