Postponing the Future: How War and Inflation are Reshaping Marriage in Iran

Pejman and Sanaz are currently navigating the daunting process of planning a wedding they can barely afford. Subhan Dashti had originally secured a date for his wedding, planning to marry his fiancee, Nadia Sabzi, during Nowruz 1405, the Iranian New Year, which falls between March 20 and 21. Having been together since 2016, the couple had already begun purchasing items for their future home before prices started surging last year. Following political and social unrest, the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28. Dashti’s family fled Tehran for the northern region of the country, bringing wedding preparations to a halt. When fighting temporarily paused, both families returned to Tehran, and the couple attempted to restart their plans. However, a television Dashti had previously budgeted at 70 million tomans ($302) surged to nearly 100 million tomans ($432). Despite earning roughly 100 million tomans a month ($432)—an income well above the average for an Iranian worker—he determined that marrying immediately was financially unviable.

“We decided to postpone the wedding for at least a few more months,” said Subhan Dashti, 35. The minimum wage for an Iranian worker sits at approximately 16 million tomans per month, amounting to less than $68 at open market rates, while the average worker earns around 25 million tomans, or roughly $105 monthly. For Nadia Sabzi, 34, financial calculations represent only a fraction of her anxiety; she has accepted the prospect of a smaller ceremony featuring a simpler dress and a modest hall. What she cannot reconcile is personal safety. An early September US strike struck a house in Kuhestak, located in southern Iran’s Sirik County, during an ongoing wedding celebration. Iranian authorities reported that several individuals were killed and dozens injured, including women and children.

“For the past two weeks, I have been asking Subhan at night: what if the war starts again when we are getting married?” Sabzi said. Their delayed wedding serves as a small reflection of a broader crisis facing young people across Iran. Amid war, sanctions, inflation, and shortages, young couples are forced to constantly recalibrate their marriage plans, reassessing wedding expenses, household necessities, and how far into the future they can reasonably plan.

Simin Nouri, a bridal makeup artist in Tehranpars, noted that her salon previously welcomed two or three brides a day during the peak summer wedding season. Currently, that number has dropped to just two or three a week as prices continue to climb. According to Nouri, a standard bridal package in Tehran costs about 70 million tomans ($302), VIP packages can reach up to 150 million tomans ($648), and packages in lower-income neighborhoods hover around 50 million tomans ($216). Rather than abandoning services entirely, clients are choosing to downgrade by skipping skincare and hair extensions to book only essential makeup and hairstyling for the wedding night. “They still want to do these things, but they go for the less expensive option,” she explained, noting that two of her own friends outright postponed their weddings. One even declined Nouri's offer for deferred payment on free makeup, “Because the makeup was never the real obstacle – the wedding itself was.”

Pejman and Sanaz, who met while studying electronic engineering and opted to withhold their surnames and university, married in July immediately following last year's 12-day war. Their rental costs illustrate the harsh economic reality: the total deposit and monthly rent for their Tehran apartment rose by 71 percent over a single year, climbing from roughly 34 million tomans ($144) to about 58 million tomans ($246). This included a shift from a 300 million-toman ($1,296) deposit and 25 million-toman ($106) monthly rent—plus 1.5 to 2 million tomans ($6–$8) in building charges—to a new landlord's demand for a 400 million-toman ($1,728) deposit and 46 million tomans ($198) in monthly rent. Pejman, 30, earns 56 million tomans a month ($242), meaning the new rent alone consumes about 82 percent of his income. “Last year, just to cover the costs of starting our life together, we had to sell 13 grams of my wife’s gold,” he noted. Replacing that gold has become drastically more expensive, with 18-carat gold jumping from roughly 6.48 million tomans a gram ($28) in June 2025 to over 23 million tomans ($99) by mid-September 2026.

Organizing a mid-range Tehran wedding for approximately 100 guests—spanning the hall, bridal services, clothing, photography, music, and modest gold—now totals nearly 1.1 billion tomans ($4,752), compared to roughly 480 million tomans ($2,074) prior to the 2025 war, though prices fluctuate depending on the neighborhood and provider. Economist Amir Hossein Mohaddes divides the current crisis into two distinct challenges: the expense of establishing a household and the expense of maintaining one. “A couple can make the wedding smaller. They can remove parts of the ceremony. But they cannot remove housing,” Mohaddes stated. He contends that the most damaging factor is sheer unpredictability, as rapidly escalating prices prevent couples from planning even a few months ahead. Mohaddes warns that even a ceasefire or complete halt to the war would not reverse this trajectory, pointing out that a refrigerator which has doubled in price will not spontaneously drop back down, and landlords rarely decrease inflated rents.

For Abbas Derafshi, 30, a bank employee who planned to marry his fiancee Parastoo, even state-supported marriage loans have proven insufficient to close the growing financial gap. Derafshi explained that under President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, bank personnel were directed to assist young couples with marriage loans by processing applications with minimal guarantees, often requiring only a single guarantor. Rules established in 2023 set the standard loan at 180 million tomans per person ($778), or 360 million tomans for a couple ($1,555). Derafshi calculated that the combined loan exceeded $7,000, structured with a 10-year repayment window and a 4 percent service fee. Although the standard loan has since increased to 300 million tomans per person ($1,296), or 600 million tomans for a couple ($2,592), recipients now face monthly repayments of roughly 5.5 million tomans ($24)—about 2.2 million tomans ($9.50) higher than payments required under the 2023 guidelines. Despite nominal loan values rising, Derafshi calculates that its actual purchasing power has plummeted by roughly 64 percent in dollar terms since 2023. “When I applied for the loan under the President Masoud Pezeshkian government, even though I work at a bank myself, I faced so many obstacles – from branch assignment and credit checks to guarantor requirements and additional documents – that I eventually gave up,” he said. While noting his experience reflects personal hurdles rather than universal conditions at every Iranian bank, the outcome for him and Parastoo was definitive: rising housing and wedding costs stripped them of the financial means to begin married life as intended. “The plans we had for starting our life together have basically been put on hold until further notice,” Derafshi remarked.

Political science professor Jalil Dara noted that prolonged inflation and uncertainty are “contributing to anxiety, lower optimism and delayed family formation among young Iranians,” occurring alongside a concurrent rise in national solidarity that remains ill-at-ease with severe economic pressure. However, Dara emphasized that Iran's economic struggles precede the current conflict. “Years of sanctions, chronic inflation, currency depreciation, weak investment and domestic policy failures had already made marriage and housing harder for young people,” he said. “The war worked as an accelerating shock, not the sole cause. Even an end to hostilities would not automatically reverse the damage.”

Mohaddes asserted that for household purchasing power to truly recover, Iran will require far more than peace alone. Ending the cost-of-living crisis necessitates currency stability, real wage growth, productive employment, boosted investment, and reduced economic unpredictability. “That is why the consequences of war can outlast the sound of explosions,” he concluded. Confronted by financial burdens they can no longer absorb, Pejman and Sanaz are currently weighing the option of leaving Iran to pursue education abroad. “We both love Iran. We would like to return after finishing our doctorates and work for our country,” Sanaz said. “Hope the situation would be better by then.”