Power, Belonging, and Respectability

Abstract

The vast majority of the Iranian diasporic population in Europe is concentrated in the United Kingdom, with an estimate of seventy thousand Iranian first-generation migrants (CT0723_2011 Census n.d.).1 Learning a new culture but not losing one’s own has always been a challenge among Iranians. This article offers a comparative analysis of two studies examining Iranian first-generation migrants’ understandings of power, belonging, and respectability in the diaspora. It provides important insights into how Iranian migrants in the United Kingdom differently conceptualize these notions at the intersection of class, gender, and race. The first study, by Mastoureh Fathi (2017), explores the intersectional experiences of Iranian migrant women living in the United Kingdom. The second study, conducted in my PhD dissertation, examines Iranian men’s different perceptions of sexual violence, also in the United Kingdom. The first study focuses on how gendered identities are performed within different classes. The second study argues that Iranian men perceive Iranian masculinity as superior to English masculinity, sexualizing notions of respectability and relating it to modesty.Few studies have explored ideas of power, belonging, and respectability among the Iranian diaspora in the United Kingdom (Aitchison, Hopkins, and Kwan 2007; Karimi 2020; Mobasher 2018; Moghissi and Ghorashi 2016). None, however, have explored belonging and respectability in relation to Iranians’ understanding of their own social class, their experience of migration, and their perceptions of sensitive subjects such as sexual violence. Fathi’s study analyzes class and belonging through the everyday experiences of highly skilled Iranian migrant women. The study is based on narrative interviews with eighteen first-generation Iranian women living in the United Kingdom. All the participants are medical doctors thirty to fifty years old. Fathi focuses on the participants’ personal narratives to gain a better understanding of their raced, classed, and gendered identities and positionalities in the diaspora. She draws attention to the class position of “privileged migrants,” who have tangible capital (such as their profession and assets through familial inheritance, etc.) that distances them from other migrants (i.e., refugees, asylum seekers, and unskilled migrants) in the host society. The study discusses respect as central to the narratives of the participants, who see themselves at an advantage compared with other migrants based on their occupations and a sense of reputation received from their profession. In this context respect does not have a gendered component in its formulation but it locates these women as morally superior in the British society.My PhD dissertation, “Perspectives of Iranian Men on Sexual Violence in the UK,” explores differences in perceptions of sexual violence among Iranian men. The study is based on semistructured interviews with thirty highly skilled Iranian migrant men (i.e., doctors, engineers) aged eighteen to forty years and living in the United Kingdom. The study draws on Marianne Hester’s (2002) understanding of sexual violence as the historical sexual domination of men over women. Hester adopts a historical analysis to argue that notions of ideal masculinity and femininity have continuously shifted to bestow a superior position on men. The participants’ responses demonstrate that cultural and religious discourses, such as the idea of being “a complete Iranian man” and “a real man,” play key roles in the construction of Iranian masculinities in the diaspora. Based on the findings of the study, Iranian men have masculinized notions of belonging and respect. They perceive Iranian masculinity as superior to English masculinity, sexualizing the notions of respect and relating it to modesty thought to prevent women from being victims of sexual violence.Both studies are conducted in relation to the political and social contexts of Iranian society. All participants were born after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and have been educated under the Islamic state’s values.2 As other studies suggest, this would account for the presence of gender discriminatory discourses in male participants’ narratives (Farahani 2012; Khosravi 2009). Both Fathi’s book and my study use Kimberlé Crenshaw’s (1991) concept of intersectionality in Nira Yuval-Davis’s (1994) reading of this concept as the central analytic framework for their studies. For Yuval-Davis, social divisions such as class, gender, and race are understood to have different ontological bases irreducible to, but also inseparable from, other social divisions. In Fathi’s book, intersectionality is the primary lens used to analyze the participants’ narratives regarding their experiences of class. This concept is mobilized alongside Beverley Skeggs’s (1997: 82) notion of respect, understood as one of the “most ubiquitous signifiers of class.” Skeggs argues that classed selves are portrayed via body language and behavior to create distinctive boundaries between self and others. In her view, the categorization of social groups forms the basis of interpretation of their behaviors as respectable and nonrespectable. I instead use intersectionality as an additive theoretical concept alongside Raewyn Connell’s (1995: 77) hegemonic masculinity defined as “the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees the dominant position of men and the subordination of women.” The combination of these two theoretical frameworks has allowed me to explore the difference in perceptions of the male participants to sexual violence and the fluidity of the concept of masculinity within the Iranian diaspora.The two studies see belonging and its opposites, foreignness and otherness, as playing a key role in the lives of Iranian migrants, notably in a context marked by increased xenophobia and Islamophobia following 9/11 in the United States and the 2005 London bombings in the United Kingdom. Fathi understands belonging through placing the stories of class within the concept of belonging to highlight the role of profession that exists in migrants’ claims of belonging as valid, authentic, and important to those of others. Belonging is, as Fathi (2017: 145) notes, a multilayered process informed by power relations and is about “who is included and who is excluded.” She focuses on “classed belonging” that is “an exploration of a sense of belonging, placing all the intersectional categories into a core element of identity construction” (13). Within this concept, Fathi sheds light on fluidity of feelings of belongingness and unbelongingness simultaneously based on the specific context within which migrants are positioned. The narratives presented in the study show that immigrants’ sense of belonging is not only geographic but also linked to class, gender, and race. In particular, the participants’ profession as medical doctors plays a key role in their narratives of belonging, enabling them to present themselves as more legitimate and distinguished than other immigrants.The analysis of narratives also illustrates the participants’ mixed feelings of belonging and unbelonging vis-à-vis British society as well as their perceptions of marginalization as Iranian migrants. For participants, classed belonging is an important part of identity. By referring to their skills and profession, they present themselves as those who merit to belong to British society. However, on some occasions they demonstrate a sense of unbelonging by constructing narratives about foreigner and indigenous. This is evident in Monir’s statement that “in your workplace, because you are a doctor, the personnel, although they are English have to obey you and listen to you, . . . then I feel that because of my job I can be like English people. . . . I never feel inferior or overshadowed by them” (150).3 Monir discusses how her job has allowed her to communicate with English people on a same level. According to Monir and other participants who share similar views, being a medical doctor has sheltered them from widespread racism, despite the marginalized position that, as Iranians, they occupy in British society. However, her quotation shows a mixed feeling of belonging and unbelonging. Monir demonstrates that as a result of her belonging to her profession, English people “have to” obey her. She shows the feeling of power and control gained from her profession, but also her unbelongingness as she differentiates “the English” into another category. In this sense, Monir uses what Fathi describes as a “racial assimilatory tool” to mark herself as similar to her English counterparts (151). In other words, Monir uses language in a hierarchical way to demonstrate her feeling that she is not lower than the English. Her statement shows her acknowledgment of the racial hierarchy in British society, and her desire to “be like the English.” In a similar fashion, Nagel (2010: 272) argues that Arab migrants in London see themselves as both English and Arab by following middle-class “English sensibilities,” which has empowered them in their strategies of belonging.This observation stands as different from my findings, where participants capitalize on a sense of unbelonging to define their masculinity as superior vis-à-vis British masculinity. Most of the male participants emphasized the cultural and religious discourses such as “a complete Iranian man” and “a real man,” which play key roles in the formation of Iranian masculinities in the diaspora. They also perceive these notions as the markers of differentiation between Iranian and British men beyond class differences. For example, Kian stated that “an Iranian man is a real man who is the head of the family and guards his female kin from sexual gaze, whether he is a porter or a doctor. These qualities belong to Iranian men that English men don’t have. So, when I see an English man, I feel [I have an] advantage over him because I belong to a rich culture and religion that nurtures a real man” (Torbati 2019: 128). Maziar also stated, “Our cultural and religious teachings do not allow an Iranian man to be indecisive and unreliable like English men. We grew up in a way that we are able to support the family. This is what makes a complete Iranian man” (139).Kian and Maziar’s views were highly widespread among many other participants who differentiated between Iranian and English masculinities and referred to the cultural and religious construction of Iranian masculinity as tied to being a “head of the family,” “guardian,” “decisive and reliable.” Unlike in Fathi’s study, interviewees did not rely on their profession to create a sense of belonging to British society. Instead, by opposing Iranian to English masculinity and presenting the former as superior to the latter, they negotiated their position in the diaspora as one of unbelonging in British society. This may be because not only does “whiteness” as a form of dominant masculinity challenge the Iranian masculinity, but also Iranian masculinity is in a contestation with Iranian femininity. Studies have shown that migration as a new social context is a place where social identities such as masculinity, femininity, and sexuality are contested and renegotiated (Bauer 2000; Farahani 2012; Khosravi 2009). Hence Iranian men’s authority and superiority over women have decreased due to migration and left room for women to gain liberty and equality (Khosravi 2009; Moghissi, Rahnema, and Goodman 2009). However, masculinity is not only challenged by femininity, but also confronted with the new forms of masculinities in the host society. For example, in the study of the accounts of Muslim African men in Australia, Ndungi Wa Mungai and Bob Pease (2009) found that African masculinity has been confronted with the new Australian masculinity and as a result has been integrated into the different gender roles, such as having more control over their family. This situation becomes critical when responsibility is connected with religion, particularity Islam, which bestows on men a higher legitimated position (Mungai and Pease 2009). So in my study, the intersection of notions such as being “head of the family,” a “guardian,” and “decisive and reliable” with religious and cultural teaching have created a hierarchy of power, where the participants have situated their Iranian masculinity as (morally) superior, not only in relation to British men, but also in relation to their female kin as a way of maintaining and/or regaining power.A comparison between the two studies shows that belonging is not one-dimensional and static; rather, it is a social process that expresses the feelings of safety and superiority. Furthermore, the fluidity of feeling of belongingness and unbelongingness is not only situated; in other words, it depends on the specific context within which migrants are located but is also intersectional. In the first study belonging was strongly tied to the notion of class in diaspora, however, in the second study the concept was associated with the notion of gender that resulted in creation of a sense of unbelonging in British society and perceiving Iranian masculinity superior to English masculinity.Although the studies differ on the basis of gender, in both of them respect is used to signify the social class of individuals. Building on Skeggs’s work, Fathi (2017: 71) uses this notion as a signifier of middle-class femininity to analyze participants’ narratives regarding the formation of class identity and suggests that respect and morality constitute class identity. In her view, medicine is used by the participants as a means of attaining respect, since these women have been accepted as institutionally legitimate doctors in Britain. She also notes that some participants understand respect as functioning differently in Iran and in the United Kingdom. In particular, she argues that respect—like belonging—is closely associated in the participants’ narratives with being a doctor.4 According to the participants, being a doctor in Iran is perceived as a symbol of success for women. They gain more social power and privilege, such as higher statues and income, which are important to level their structurally inferior positions to men. According to Fathi, the making of a respectable self is part of Iranian migrant women’s pathway to become a doctor in Iran, and it has been a major driving force in the creation not only of a knowledgeable person but also of one who is respectable. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, Fathi notes that they use their profession to present themselves as respectable immigrants in an anti-immigrant context. In this context the notion of respect is formed through narratives that represent medicine as based on moral values exemplified in treatments, goodwill, and societal advantages from occupying certain professions. This is illustrated in the words of Monir, for whom achieving respect means fulfilling the moral aspects of her job: [By becoming a doctor] you feel that you are very close to people’s lives, their honor and the money and all these change in you in terms of personality and [allow you to grow] as a doctor. You see medicine is really about when people come to you and leave their body in your hands. Whether you are a psychiatric ward or wherever . . . people come and leave you with all their feelings. It means that you are really [close] to him or her. (73)This quotation shows that the notion of respect is established through narratives that display medicine as based on moral values. It highlights the specificities of the medical profession, which involves caring for others and evokes kindness and trust. As Fathi argues, it is related to the politics of respectability, where respect is constructed by Monir’s satisfaction in becoming closer to people’s unreachable and unreported values. Her view on her position as a trustworthy person is important, since it constructs a respect based on moral values, which is a form of respect discussed by Skeggs.In Fathi’s estimation, respect is a signifier of middle-classness linked to the participants’ profession, whereas in my doctoral research, this notion acquires sexual and moral connotations in the interviewees’ narratives, linked to women’s adoption of an appropriate behavior and modesty in line with dominant cultural and moral values in Iranian society. In fact, the notion of respect was raised by the participants during the interviews when they were asked if they saw a relation between the social class of individuals and sexual violence victimization. In most of the responses, Skeggs’s definition of a respectable woman—a lady behaving appropriately—was prevalent. For example, Hamed asserted: Since I moved here, I consider those women whose cultural and religious beliefs are strong and who have appropriate social manners as middle class regardless of their education and profession. These women are respectable and modest since they know how to behave like a lady, wear less makeup and conservative clothes. So, they will be less in danger of sexual violence than those women who are not like them. (Torbati 2019: 150)Hamed’s opinion was similar to that of other participants who see a connection between respect, middle-class femininity, and modesty, an association not apparent in Fathi’s study. His definition of a middle-class woman is akin to Skeggs’s notion of a “respectable woman.” According to Hamed, a middle-class woman wears less makeup and conservative clothes, and thus has a moral superiority over those who do not. In this context, the identification of middle-classness with women’s modesty creates a hierarchical power relationship where women, regardless of their profession, are judged by men based on their appearance and behavior as potential victims of sexual violence. Such hegemonic positioning of men attributes a form of power to them that, as Skeggs argues, is used to recognize who is respectable and valuable and who is not, irrespective of their qualifications and professions. Hamed’s view about migration, femininity, and mindlessness was highly widespread among other participants who view a link between social class and sexual violence. The narratives show that migration and living in a diaspora were found to be the key factors that have challenged their views about femininity, respect, and middle class. As individuals move, their identity undergoes changes and challenges. Hence the process of migration provides a profound and different understanding of gendered and class dynamics.The central point to these two studies is that the experience of migration is different for men and women. Migration is a gendered process that creates a new social setting and transforms the participants’ social positioning and the way they understand their masculinity, class, ethnicity, and so on. It plays a crucial role in changing individuals’ behavior toward social phenomena and influences their positionality and the way they perceive their social locations. In the first study respect is regarded as central to the narratives of the female participants who see themselves as having an advantage compared with other migrants, based on their occupations; in the second study respect is masculinized by Iranian men and is related to modesty regardless of occupation. In this context, the behavior of women is stigmatized in relation to their chastity and their responsibility for self-regulation and their social manner (Skeggs 1991). This demonstrates the process by which an individual’s perceptions toward defining one’s social class are formed and intersect with dominant cultural and moral values.The comparison between the two studies highlights the differences in perceptions of belonging and respect among Iranian migrant men and women in the diaspora. While perceptions of belonging and unbelonging were classed, gendered, and racialized in the first study, in the second study the narratives of unbelonging were masculinized by the male participants as markers of differentiation and superiority between them and British men. Whereas in Fathi’s study respect was a signifier of middle-classness linked to the participants’ profession, in my study, respect was masculinized and linked to modesty and adopting appropriate behavior. The results of both studies show that migration has different implications for men and women, as well as for different classes. Migration and its impact on migrants’ social identities must be considered more seriously. This would also offer valuable insights to facilitate the process of integration and to create feelings of safety and security. Additionally, the analyses of belonging and respect in relation to gender, class, and race must be at the center of the researchers’ attention. Exploring the power relations embedded in diasporic narratives offers more nuanced understandings of belonging and respect and demonstrates the fluidity of migrant’s positionality in different contexts.