Iranian Diaspora Research Articles

Defying precarity: Iranian diaspora and transnationalism in the making

ABSTRACTWe are living among a global transformation in which neoliberal policies have created a precarious existence for various individuals and groups, including migrants around the globe. Precarity as a concept has become progressively widespread for making sense of the insecurities stemming from neoliberal policies, especially, flexible employment, ongoing decrease of welfare protection, and finding market solutions to social problems. Using an ethnographic approach, this paper aims to explore how Iranians in the UK overcome precarity. We found that precarity forces Iranians to confront their situation by considering their specific social experiences. Joining various transnational activities and networks, using transnational communication media, migrants convert their self-awareness into a strategy in order to overcome marginality.

Aesthetics of an Iranian diaspora – politics of belonging and difference in contemporary art photography

ABSTRACT Following a particular interest in memories and stories of exile and their representation in artistic photography, I draw critical attention to the notion of diasporic aesthetics. I ask why visual and performative strategies of storytelling matter as fundamental methods not only of self-representation, but also of transcultural expressions of “belonging” across various cultural and geographical borders. Reflecting on Parastou Forouhar, an Iranian artist living in exile in Germany, and her photographic series Das Grass ist Grün, der Himmel ist Blau, und Sie ist Schwarz [The Grass is Green, the Sky is Blue, and She is Black] (2017), I argue that artistic photography constitutes a social practice that carries the potential to create relations of solidarity with other migratory groups. These groups may share similar diasporic aesthetics, or be familiar with experiences of migration and exile or discrimination and exclusion. Moreover, within the scope of photography and migration and its particular expression and performances of belonging, the practice produces a creative space where cultural differences and boundaries may generate shared forms of identification and contestation that transcend national and ethnic identities. After arguing for photography as a medium that expresses the multiple notions and struggles of the ongoing processes through which “belonging becomes”, conclude that photography can generate a sensorium, a space that provides possibilities of critical transcultural engagement and encounters in post-migration societies.

Paradoxes of Dual Nationality: Geopolitical Constraints on Multiple Citizenship in the Iranian Diaspora

Despite suggestions that multiple citizenships offer enhanced access to security, mobility, and rights, dual nationals of countries like Iran may instead experience greater insecurity, immobility, and disruption of rights. This article offers a brief overview of recent literature and controversies surrounding dual citizenship and then focuses on the Iranian case, demonstrating the limits of dual citizenship as felt by diasporic Iranians. The winds of geopolitical change may affect which nation's dual citizens will be targeted in a given time period, but the impact of geopolitical constraints must be considered in any explanations of the costs and benefits of dual citizenship.

Development and Validation of the Acculturative Stress among Iranian Diaspora Scale

Development and Validation of the Acculturative Stress among Iranian Diaspora Scale

Heritage language policies of the Iranian diaspora in New Zealand

ABSTRACT The present study investigates immigrant parents’ family language policies in regards to their children’s heritage language development and maintenance by utilizing Spolsky’s theoretical model on which research on family language policy (FLP) considerably draw. Following the three core components of the FLP model, Iranian parents’ beliefs, practices and efforts in relation to their children’s home language (i.e. Persian/Farsi) acquisition and maintenance are investigated. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with twenty-five parents of Persian-English bilinguals (6–18 year old) in New Zealand. The findings reveal that although the parents hold positive beliefs towards the family language acquisition and maintenance, there are discrepancies between their language ideologies and family language practices. In light of these inconsistencies between parents’ beliefs and their actual family language practices and efforts to preserve the heritage language, we argue that to raise their children bilingually, immigrant parents should not only have strong beliefs towards family language acquisition and maintenance, but also their everyday practices and efforts should be in line with their beliefs.

Subjunctive nostalgia of postmemorial art: Remediated family archives in the Iranian diaspora

Family archives have become the source of nostalgic 1.5 and second-generation diasporic cultural work as artists seeking to understand their family histories and to negotiate liminal identities remediate private home movies, photos, and postmemorial narratives. The liminal position of these artists leads to imaginative remediations that dwell in what could have been, prompting a subjunctive nostalgia for a future past cut short by revolution and war. By focusing on the online circulation of remediated pre-Revolutionary Iranian family photos and home movies, I demonstrate that digitized images of this particular time-space (the chronotope of pre-Revolution Iran) have become an evocative site of memory for the Iranian diasporic postgeneration. When these images are remediated through art and circulated digitally online, they move horizontally across the postgeneration along with the subjunctive nostalgia they prompt, creating opportunities for affiliation and recognition that contribute to diasporic collective memory.

The Iranian diaspora and the homeland: redefining the role of a centre

ABSTRACT Drawing from the multifaceted notions of diaspora mobilisation, this article analyses the complex attitudes of Iranian immigrants toward their homeland and assesses the functions and importance of the national centre in cases where the homeland is contested. As a diaspora fragmented along ethnic, religious, political and class lines, the Iranian diaspora(s) presents a challenge to any perception of a tightly bound community and solidarities based on common cultural and ethnic references. Based on a survey of opinions conducted among Iranian immigrants regarding the homeland, we argue that while the Iranian homeland occupies an important position in the construction of the diasporic identity, this diaspora(s) turns away from national politics and mobilises toward their homeland and imagines it in a way that is contrary to how it is constructed in the Iranian homeland. The Iranian diaspora(s) has developed a trans-national diasporic identity drawn from various sources, whether pre-Islamic Persian or multicultural, in a way that diminishes the importance of the national centre in the construction of its identity. Iranian immigrants are redefining Iran as a ‘referent-origin’ in a manner that maintains diaspora(s) cohesion and solidarity and meets their emotional needs, the transnational environment and the actual reality of the host countries.

State-aligned trolling in Iran and the double-edged affordances of Instagram

Online harassment is increasingly applied as a form of information control to curb free speech and exert power in online public spheres. In recent years, states have appeared to be particularly invested in weaponizing information against dissidents in an attempt at dominating social and political discourses. Reports by prominent human rights institutions, as well as anecdotal evidence, indicate that Iran remains among the states with a track record of such actions. The scope of targeted cyber abuse varies by case. This study investigates the size and perpetrators of online violence, harassment, and abuse against critical members of the Iranian diaspora, including journalists, civil society activists, and artists, among many others. This study substantiates findings of qualitative interviews with a quantitative study of Instagram accounts of related individuals and explores the patterns and communities involved in disseminating hate speech in an attempt at manipulating public opinion and suppressing voices of dissidents.

Sexuality and integration: a case of gay Iranian refugees’ collective memories and integration practices in Canada

ABSTRACT During the past two decades, Canada has accepted hundreds of LGBT asylum seekers, including gay Iranian men. Sociologists of sexualities and migration have yet to study this group as immigrants whose sexualities play a central role in their social interactions, immigration, and integration practices. Taking integration as a category of practice and relying on Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory, I provide an empirical study of integration practices of gay Iranian refugees in Canada. I draw on 32 interviews with gay Iranian refugees to analyse their interactions with Canadian society at large, the Canadian gay community, and Iranian Diaspora. My findings indicate that memories play the role of proxies that inform gay Iranian refugees’ interactions in Canada at the intersection of race-ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and nationality.

Moving from the Margin toward the Center: Some Thoughts on the Emerging Field of Iranian Diaspora Studies

Moving from the Margin toward the Center: Some Thoughts on the Emerging Field of Iranian Diaspora Studies

Darvag and the Theatre of Iranian Diaspora

Darvag and the Theatre of Iranian Diaspora

Integration, class and secularism: the marginalization of Shia identities in the UK Iranian diaspora

Despite ongoing debates about the nature and role of multiculturalism in the UK, the idea of integration remains significant in British immigration policies and community relations, and it orients itself towards second and third-generation diasporans as well as recent arrivals. Drawing on original data from the UK Iranian diaspora, this paper aims to complicate extant debates by exploring the cultural dimensions of integration mainly at the intra-diasporic level. Particularly among secular middle-class UK Iranians, ‘integration’ acts as an idiom for being a ‘good’, ‘successful’, ‘proper’ Iranian, and a failure to integrate is often described as unacceptable and even shameful. Integration in this sense mirrors dominant neo-liberal attitudes and puts huge pressure on Iranians to constantly ‘do better’ in cultural and economic terms to justify their presence in the UK. Crucially, these processes are predicated on a critique and/or rejection of Iranian Shiism and Islam in general, thus helping to marginalize Iranian Shia identities in representations of Iranian-ness in the British mainstream. We argue, therefore, that dominant policies and discourses of integration, regardless of their stated intention, intersect with the multiple and competing realities that exist in a diasporic community to produce particular social and cultural relations which may exclude identities protected under UK law. However, we also draw comparison with the US to suggest that these dynamics might begin to change in the near future.

Whatever Happened to The Little Black Fish?

This essay uses retranslation studies to trace the defanging and domestication of Samad Behrangi’s The Little Black Fish, a children’s story once hailed as a major revolutionary and literary text. Behrangi’s book is the only modern Iranian prose work to have been translated multiple times both before and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The study compares the texts from several of these retranslations, by considering whether they have been domesticated for their English readers, as well as their context, by looking at the cultural impact of such factors as the Islamic Revolution and US‒Iran relations. It looks at how various translators and publishers have interpreted the story and how their perspectives reflect Iranian history, the influence of Middle East studies, and the interests of the Iranian diaspora. The result sheds light on translation norms, as well as on the circulation and interpretation of Iranian literature in the global context.

Iranian Diaspora, Reality Television and Connecting to Homeland

<p><em>Befarmaeed Sham</em>, an Iranian diasporic media production adapted from the original UK reality show “Come Dine with me” features Iranian diaspora of diverse backgrounds as contestants in a cooking reality show. The success of the show has been unprecedented among audiences back home in Iran, reaching millions of households. Using discourse analysis this article examines the potential of reality TV in widening the scope of public sphere and in providing a space for participation and representation. The key practices to illustrate this are ways diaspora position themselves as subjects through discursive practices to express agency in generating, participating and sharing opinions. Casual talk and the entertaining attribute of reality TV focused on the everyday life of ordinary people, constructs a space to normalize audience engagement with what is otherwise, restrictive taboo topics embedded in themes around belonging, homeland, gender, and identity. The article concludes that the broad system of discourse used by diaspora as participants in the reality show constructs a space for representation. It can be considered as a contribution to enhancing the public sphere to not only communicate and connect with their homeland but to express opinions on broader social issues as a practice of civic engagement. This unique adaptation of reality TV is an important aspect of globalization and in using new media to mobilize diaspora in connecting to homeland.</p>

Framed Memories: The Politics of Recollection in Mana Neyestani’s An Iranian Metamorphosis

This essay examines the graphic memoir An Iranian Metamorphosis, by the acclaimed cartoonist Mana Neyestani, in the context of Iranian diaspora literature, particularly the genre of comics. Neyestani’s book is analyzed for its engagement with the politics of exile literature, and its attempt at challenging a two-dimensional view of the political discourse, in which the ethical boundaries of pro- and anti-government are overtly simple. The essay focuses on the book’s narrative techniques that exhibit a complex awareness of what is anticipated from a representative work of Iranian exile memoir, and the way it negotiates its own narrative politics. To clarify the arguments, several comparative examples are drawn from two well-known graphic narratives by Iranian diaspora authors, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and Amir and Khalil’s Zahra’s Paradise.

Sanaz Fotouhi. The Literature of the Iranian Diaspora: Meaning and Identity Since the Islamic Revolution

The literature on hyphenated writers of the Iranian diaspora has grown exponentially in recent years, and this monograph is an interesting new addition to the field. It offers a nuanced and comprehensive overview of the literature from this diaspora written in English. Focusing on texts by Iranian-Americans, it presents a careful analysis of a large number of works that deal with issues of migration, identity, belonging and in-betweenness. It engages with theoretical reflections on Iranian di...

Enabling sexual self-fashioning: embracing, rejecting and transgressing modernity among the Iranian Dutch

ABSTRACTModernity figures prominently in understanding change in diasporic sexual cultures, particularly when it comes to Muslim immigrants living in Western countries. Prevailing academic analyses of sexuality in the Iranian diaspora focus on the willingness and ability to embrace ‘modern’ notions of sexual liberty, individual self-fulfilment and gender equality. This approach attributes an assumed progression from a traditional past to a modern present to the Iranian immigrants, and determines simultaneously the extent of their integration into the ‘host’ culture. As an alternative to this dominant perception of change in which modernity is seen as an indicator of cultural progression, this paper proposes the concept of sexual self-fashioning to investigate the diasporic articulations of sexuality in various discursive uses of modernity as investments in processes of subjectivity. Based on an ethnographic research conducted between 2010 and 2014, the Iranian Dutch’ perceptions of specific sexual issues are analysed as vehicles to sexual self-fashioning. It is argued that a sexual self is actively negotiated and created through embracing, rejecting and transgressing modernity, which enables the interlocutors to position themselves in different fields of socio-cultural or religious belonging.

Searching for a Room of One’s Own: Rethinking the Iranian Diaspora in “Persepolis”, “Shahs of Sunset” and “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”

For diasporic communities created through violence or forcible resettlement, home transcends physical boundaries and becomes a blend of past experience and future imagination. Iranians displaced after the 1979 Revolution have imagined home through various cultural mediums, such as, television, film, and literature. Three cultural texts produced by Iranian women, (Persepolis, Shahs of Sunset, and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), in particular, offer illuminating glimpses into the diaspora experience. I propose to engage in a close textual reading of the aforementioned works across methodological boundaries to show that despite their portrayal of varied diaspora life experiences, the diaspora paradigm reduces these experiences to a figurative return to the homeland. I argue that the diaspora paradigm, by offering a highly romanticized and homogenizing understanding of home and foreign land, flattens the diversity of identity and experience. Furthermore, the diaspora paradigm denies the role of intersection of class and gender on the lived experiences of the actual diaspora population. Through an alternative reading of these texts, I hope to challenge the prevalent paradigm through which Iranian diaspora identity is understood. I focus on autobiographical textual trends as a method of story-telling and self-formation, comparing this narrative structure to the theory of identity as ‘infinitely postponed’ in exile. I specifically highlight crucial interactions of local and global forces that shape diaspora experiences otherwise elided in the existing scholarship, complicating romantic understandings of both home and abroad.

Gendered and Embodied Geopolitics of Borders, Marginalization, and Contingent Solidarity

Gendered and Embodied Geopolitics of Borders, Marginalization, and Contingent Solidarity

Searching for ‘success’: generation, gender and onward migration in the Iranian diaspora

This article uses the concepts of ‘transnational social fields’ and ‘habitus’ to explore the multifaceted role families play in shaping the aspirations of onward migrating youth. The article draws on biographical life history interviews conducted with the children of Iranian migrants who were raised in Sweden but moved to London, UK as adults. The findings of the study suggest that from a young age, all the participants were pressured by their parents to perform well academically, and to achieve high level careers. These goals were easier to achieve in London than in Sweden for several reasons. Interestingly, however, participants’ understandings of what constituted success and their motivations for onward migration were nuanced and varied considerably by gender. The study contributes to an understanding of the role of multi-sited transnational social fields in shaping the aspirations of migrant youths, as well as the strategies taken up by these migrants to achieve their goals.