Soundscape and sonic memory: dynamics of Jewish and Muslim day-to-day social interactions in Udlajan, Tehran

Abstract

Being home to a majority of Jews before the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, Udlajan is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Tehran. Through interviews with a select group of its past Jewish and Muslim residents, this research considers Udlajan’s past soundscape and its former residents’ sonic recollections in order to examine the role of sounds and silences in the social construction of space. By narrating sound memories together with other ones, Udlajan former residents express their understanding of space, communications with others, sense of identity, self and otherness, and norms of inclusion and exclusion. This paper illustrates how the Jewish residents, despite aspects of their everyday lives being circumscribed, are not mute victims but exercise agency in appropriating, negotiating and using public space.