Cultural Trauma and Ethnic Identity Formation Among Iranian Immigrants in the United States

Abstract

Inspired mainly by Jeffery Alexander's concept of cultural trauma and Irving Goffman's analysis of stigma, this article examines the impact of the Iranian Revolution and the ensuing hostage crisis in 1979 on the formation of ethnic identity among Iranian immigrants in the United States. These events resulted in the loss of cultural and ethnic pride, the rise of anti-Islamic religious sentiments, and the concealment of religious, national, and ethnic identity among Iranian immigrants in America. The article argues that the continuation of negative images of Iran and the equation of Islam with fundamentalism, extremism, and terrorism by American mainstream media had a central role in the construction of new ethnic identities among Iranians in exile.