What is it about?
The present article is based on an international study on meaningmaking coping aimed at understanding the role of culture in coping. The larger study has been conducted among cancer patients in 10 countries. The present article is confined to the results obtained in our study in Iran and restricted to religious coping methods. Twenty-seven participants with various kinds of cancer were interviewed. The several religious coping methods found in the present study are categorised on the basis of RCOPE’s five basic religious functions. The study reveals, among others, the impact of cultural beliefs on certain religious coping methods, even among those who are not regarded as practicing Muslims. The study highlights the importance of investigating cultural and social context when exploring the use of the meaning-making coping strategies in different countries .
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Why is it important?
As the present findings show, the RCOPE methods appear to be of great importance to the Iranian interviewees.
Perspectives
Nevertheless, like all people living in a dynamic, modern society, Iranians live a wide range of lives, and this makes generalising risky, especially at a time like today, when the conservative-liberal divide that runs through Iranian society is as significant as ever. In fact, there are just as many ways of being Iranian and religious, as there are Iranians. Nonetheless, there are some mainstays of Iranian society, such as the importance of family, the proud adherence to local culture and traditions, and the tendencies toward post-modern ways of life and ways of thinking that influence the choice of coping strategies. For this reason, we should pinpoint that some people have found coping methods that are not religious.
Professor Fereshteh Ahmadi
University of Gävle
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This page is a summary of: Religion, culture and illness: a sociological study on religious coping in Iran, Mental Health Religion & Culture, August 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2018.1555699.
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