The Struggle to be an Icon. Iranian Women’s Perspectives on Female Identities in Transnational Contexts

Abstract

This article sheds light on the negotiation of female Iranian identities and seeks to chart and analyse the ongoing struggle of Iranian women to counter the prevalent ascriptions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ‘Western’ world which both incessantly emphasise the religious – by drawing on contexts rooted in their own language and actions. The image of the veiled or unveiled woman has always been tied to concrete political conceptions. But how do Iranian women deal with these female images and their status as icons? How do they cope with this highly influential symbolism?