Post-revolutionary Iran Research Articles

An Autoethnographic Narrative of the Relation between Sexuality and University in Post-Revolutionary Iran

The main question that is addressed in this presentation is how we can interpret the situation of sexual relations in the context of higher education in Iran. The article is formed as an autoethnography, focusing on the relationship between sexuality and university in post-revolutionary Iran. Data are gathered from my own lived experiences at university both as a student and as a lecturer during about 25 years of academic life and interpreted by the technique of systematic introspection. I explore specific problems regarding sexuality at Iranian universities, such as sexual harassment and the relationship between male university professors and their female students. I conclude with a set of questions that require further investigations. The whole article, however, can be regarded as the process of the transformation from a sexually ignorant typical Iranian male student to a more or less gender-sensitive Iranian male university professor.

After Isolation: Mirrors between Parallel Worlds and New Conceptual Spaces of Activism in Post-Revolutionary Iran

In this article, we theoretically conceptualise the renegotiation of participatory action and activism through the formation of intellectual space that is self-reflective and upheld by what we metaphorically describe as mirrors between parallel worlds. Rethinking what activism is and how an individual relates to their social group is dependent on different levels of self-reflection, self-criticism and competing scales of insertion of other people’s struggles into one’s own political vision in an effort to intellectually rectify the local tensions that emerge in a post-revolutionary context where people are disconnected from global-level activism. A significant aspect of this analysis is our interlocutors’ imaginative capacity to draw from other people’s experiences through cultural and visual artefacts and integrate them into their own life history with the intention to address national or group-specific dilemmas. While some have drawn attention to the importance of noting how spaces for activism are remade in the post-revolutionary context due to such sentiments as disappointment, we instead examine the formation of conceptual spaces of activism within the context of isolation in contemporary Iran. Empirically, we bring together a political analysis of the novel Bevatan by Reza AmirKhani, and interviews conducted with English literature students in Shiraz.

Beyond the Enigma of the Veil: Representation of Women’s Status in Post-revolutionary Iran by Iranian–American Memoirs

Exilic Iranian memoirs by female writers began to emerge after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and surged after September 11, 2001. The dramatic increase in Iranian–American memoirs, which began after 9/11 signifies a complex relation between publication of this literary genre and mass consumption in a specific historical moment. The present paper offers a thematic analysis of a number of memoirs published by female Iranian–Americas in English from 1979 to 2012. Using Orientalism as a theoretical framework the study finds that Orientalist stereotypes are often used in framing and explaining events and issues related to Iranian women and sexuality under the Islamic Republic. In analyzing texts specific assumptions toward Iranian women will be questioned and discussed with occasional reference to details.

Social Policy Under Sociopolitical Changes in the Post-revolutionary Iran, 1979–2013

The dialectic relation between sociocultural changes and political developments in the post-revolutionary Iran is discussed in the article which shows how the social policy of the governments has changed under this relation. The 1979 Islamic Revolution brought about a wave of tendency toward a specific discourse that can be called “downtrodden discourse” wherein the poor and deprived are the center of attention, and the resources of society are mainly mobilized in the direction of improving their economic and social conditions. Furthermore, the eight-year Iran–Iraq War (1980—1988) strengthened this discourse, and the new political system relied on the lower class of the society to push the war forward, stabilize the foundations of its power, and solidify its ideology. After the war, Iran had three governments with three different approaches toward social policy. During the era of Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989–1997), no special attention was paid to social policy since economic growth and development was the focus of the government activity. Under Mohammed Khatami (1997–2005), special attention was paid to comprehensive social policy, but due to internal political and social tensions, his government failed to implement its codified social policy. Although Ahmadinejad (2005–2013) intended to pay special attention to social policy, the actions taken by his government not only failed to reduce poverty but they also pushed the significant part of the middle class below the poverty line.

Calendar as an Identity Marker of the Zoroastrian Community in Iran

The article reflects on the idea of both calendric time and its material supports used by the Zoroastrians of Iran in reference to the identity of the group. The qualitative analysis of the data collected during the fieldwork among the Zoroastrian community has shown that a distinctive time-reckoning system plays the role of an important marker that strengthens the community’s Zoroastrian identity in the face of Muslim domination. In the post-Revolutionary Iran, the calendar is one of the key pillars of the Zoroastrians’ collective self-awareness—both as an idea of a specific time-reckoning system designating ritual activities, and as a material subject that acts as a medium to promote specific values and ideas.

Understanding Socio-Legal Complexities of Sex Change in Postrevolutionary Iran

Abstract Sex-change surgery has been practiced through a medico-judicial process in Iran based on Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic juristic legal opinion (fatwa), which he issued just a few years after the Islamic revolution, in 1982. According to the Iranian legal system, judges can refer to the fatwas as a source of decision making if there are no stipulations on the matter within existing legal codes. In this article, I elucidate the divergent legal opinions on sex change among Islamic jurists in Iran and how this has amounted to different legal practices by judges in the country. The lack of law has generated difficult—and in some places impossible—conditions for trans persons to undergo sex-change surgery. According to Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa, and by drawing on semi-structured interviews conducted in Iran, I argue that sex-change surgery is not obligatory, opposing those who believe homosexuals in Iran are forced to undergo it. Trans people who decide to do so see it as a way to complete the transition, which indicates the importance of body materiality. Using the information gathered during interviews with trans persons in Iran, I examine bodily experiences during the process of transition, in which I have identified three phases: self-recognition, passing, and rebirth. These analyses show that transition does not happen at once or suddenly, it rather takes a long time and may continue after sex-change surgery, which is only one part of it.

The Sacred Defense: Sacrifice and Nationalism Across Minority Communities in Post-Revolutionary Iran

This article argues against a universalist theory in which Shi’ism explains all Iranian sacrifices during the Iran-Iraq War. The article asserts four methodological reasons why the current focus on Shi’ism as the explanation for “acts of martyrdom” is insufficient. The “Sacred Defense” literature of Christians, Zoroastrians, and the Fedayeen-e Khalq is examined to support the argument that nearly four decades of the Shah’s rule and the battle over the future of the country engendered Iran as the sacred. Iranian minorities also participated in this internal battle. Unsurprisingly these same communities constituted the Iranian military forces at the start of the War. Yet, the reason why these diverse individuals and communities offered of and from themselves remains couched within the hegemonically unhelpful idioms related to Shi’as and Shi’ism and their alleged culture of martyrdom. This article demonstrates how the Islamic Republic perpetuates this image of its populace, Shias and non-Shias alike, as part of a larger monotheistic culture of sacrifice. In contrast, this article re-inserts these communities back into Iranian history in their own words to demonstrate that some individuals willingly offered their lives during the early stages of the Iran-Iraq War because of nationalism, not a religious culture of sacrifice.

Driving Culture in Iran

Driving Culture in Iran creatively explores the relationship between legalculture and citizenry formation in post-revolutionary Iran. Banakar focusseson driving customs and explanations for citizens’ disregard of trafficlaws, demonstrating that the exceptionally high rates of road accidents andlack of law abidance is due to the complex cultural and political climate. Themonograph argues that the state’s propaganda machine promotes revolutionaryzeal but in a context where people are penalized if they dissent (3).
 Consequently, dissension becomes a tool for control, setting into motionmultiple forms of internal conflict which are reflected in the way Iraniansrelate to one another as well as in increasing rates of road traffic accidents(4). The originality of the study rests in its exploration of political life atthe juncture of law and culture. Through his analysis of the unintendedcultural outcomes of the legal structure in Iran, Banakar contributes to ourunderstanding of citizenship formation in hybrid and religiously chargedregimes. In particular, the book illustrates how citizens’ distrust of the statecan have deadly consequences on Iran’s roads. The monograph will be ofinterest to academics and other professionals working on the Middle East,Islam, and from a multitude of disciplinary perspectives ...

Two Themes inBleak House(1962)

Surprise best sellerfails to capture the triumph of azar nafisi'sreading lolita in tehran(2003). This “memoir in books” recounting the cultural politics of postrevolutionary Iran—not exactly the subject matter that typically sends a book to the top of the literary charts—turned out to be “a bookseller's dream” (Burwell 143). It sold millions, was translated into thirty-two languages, and—perhaps most impressively—generated a critical lovefest that united neocon hawks like Bernard Lewis with progressive luminaries like Margaret Atwood. Far less surprising, however, was the familiar canard of “Oriental darkness” dominating the book's mainstream reception: the idea that non-Westerners have no literature of their own and know nothing about the Western canon. Many commentators refused to consider the radical possibility that Iranians may have already been acquainted with some canonical occidental texts. Nowhere to be found in this discussion was the name Ibrahim Younisi (1926-2012), whose fifty-year career in literary translation underscores that Iranians have long been avid readers and enthusiastic translators of world literature. Sadly, this ignorance is not limited to mainstream literary publications; John O. Jordan and Nirshan Perera'sGlobal Dickensfails to mention that Charles Dickens's works have been in widespread circulation in Iran since the 1960s. Decades before Nafisi supposedly led her students to Western literary civilization, Younisi had translated not just Dickens but also Thomas Hardy, Henry Fielding, Shakespeare, and George Eliot. By the time of his death, Younisi's résumé included more than seventy translations, encompassing literary texts, criticism, memoir, and historical scholarship.

Form and Forces of Open Kitchens: The Secularization of Beauty and Private Space in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Form and Forces of Open Kitchens: The Secularization of Beauty and Private Space in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Constructing Alterity: Colonial Rhetoric in Betty Mahmoody's Not Without My Daughter

As far as literary representations of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the West are concerned, although Betty Mahmoody’s bestselling Not Without My Daughter (1987) has been called “the most popular book ever published in the US about Iran” [Milani, Farzaneh. 2008. “On Women’s Captivity in the Islamic World.” Middle East Report 38 (246): 40–46, 43], it has received scant critical attention. Hence, as the first major discursive analysis of the text, this essay illustrates how Mahmoody’s so-called memoir draws extensively on the tropes of colonial discourse to portray post-revolutionary Iran. To this end, this study employs David Spurr’s [1993. The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing, and Imperial Administration. Durham, NC: Duke University Press] theorizations of the tropes of debasement, affirmation, negation and bestialization to analyze Mahmoody’s construction of the Iranian Other. It also investigates the cult of Iranian domesticity, the question of linguistic sovereignty, and images of Iranian “mobs” in the text. Taken together, these colonial tropes and the overall context of the narrative construct a clash-of-civilizations narrative by pitting the “civilized” white US woman against her “primitive” Iranian counterparts in whose land she is “trapped”.

Translaboration

Abstract Adopting a sociological approach, this article focuses on the interface between fandom and translation. It investigates the structural rules and resources driving and conditioning translation activity in post-revolutionary Iran and the consequences it might engender. The textual and paratextual data is collected from the official and parallel volunteer translations of A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. It is argued that translaboration, a blended concept aligning the notions of translation and collaboration, in cyberspace is a response to the structurally imposed constraints, and an attempt to take control of discourse and to resist the state rules which instrumentalise translation to perpetuate the dominant discourse. This type of translaboration, which is outside the official translational policies of the state, delineates the expectations not being met by the officially published translation, and also demarcates the formal and informal norms. Drawing on their resources, the translaborators not only empower the source text to reach a wider readership without the mediation of the institutional structures of power, but also in turn are empowered by the translation.

Challenges for gender equality: Women’s religious circles in post-revolutionary Iran

Summary The agency of women in Islamicate societies is largely anchored in ideas over pious circles and gender-specific rituals. Recent studies attest religious modes of women’s presence in the public space a high significance. Taking the case of Iran, the urging question is how and to which extent religious agency within female pious circles – which were formed before the 1978/9 Revolution and fashioned after it – has been able to attain broader civil significance beyond these circles. This study explores the inner dynamics of female pious circles among women as related to structural power relations. It spells out the process of “self-spiritualization” to characterize interactions within the circles that act as a tool for self-elevation and self-authorization and as a mode of spiritually legitimated construction of hierarchies within the circles’ spiritual empowerment. It is argued that a type of pious competition between the women unfolds leading to an affirmation of gender segregation and concomitantly, of submission to institutionalized structures of masculine hierarchy and power. Finally, it pursues the effects of unfolding “self-spiritualization” through elevation, authenticity and self-authorization that might achieve a considerable degree of self-empowerment for negotiating gender roles and political life attitudes. Keywords: women’s religious circle, self-spiritualization, Muslim’s piety, female empowerment, mothers of martyrs, dreams ----- Herausforderung fur Geschlechtergleichheit: religiose Frauenzirkel im postrevolutionaren Iran Zusammenfassung Die Handlungsmacht von Frauen im postrevolutionaren Iran ist in hohem Mase mit religiosen Frauenzirkeln und deren spezifischen Ritualen verbunden. Aktuelle wissenschaftliche Arbeiten attestieren neuen Formen religios basierter Prasenz von Frauen in der Offentlichkeit eine hohe Bedeutung. Im Fall des Iran ist die drangende Frage, in welchem Ausmas religioses Handeln in weiblichen Pietatszirkeln – lange vor der Revolution 1978/79 gegrundet und mit wachsender Relevanz danach – uber diese Zirkel hinaus zivilgesellschaftliche Bedeutung zukommt. Diese Studie widmet sich den inneren Dynamiken unter Frauen innerhalb der Zirkel aus der Perspektive struktureller Machtbeziehungen. Im Mittelpunkt steht der Prozess der „Selbst-Spiritualisierung“ von Frauen, und zwar als eine Form der Selbstermachtigung und Selbstautorisierung, und weiterhin als Modus einer spirituell legitimierten Hierarchiebildung innerhalb der Zirkel. Es wird argumentiert, dass diese Art des religiosen Wettbewerbs unter Frauen Ge¬schlechtersegregation reproduziert und die Unterordnung unter institutionalisierte Strukturen mannlicher, religioser Macht verstarkt. Die Wirkungen der „Selbst-Spiritualisierung“ in Form von Selbstermachtigung, Selbstautorisierung konnen aber auch als Ausdruck von Selbstbestimmung gelesen werden: uber das Aushandeln von neuen Geschlechterrollen und politischen Lebenshaltungen, inklusive nichtreligioser Bewegungen. Schlusselworter: Weibliche Pietatszirkel, Selbst-Spiritualisierung, islamische Pietat, Starkung der Frauen, Martyrertum, Traume ----- Bibliographie: Chavoshian, Sana: Challenges for gender equality: Women’s religious circles in post-revolutionary Iran, GENDER, 3-2017, S. 117-132. https://doi.org/10.3224/gender.v9i3.09

Sacralizing kinship, naturalizing the nation: Blood and food in postrevolutionary Iran

ABSTRACTIn Iran, ideas and practices of the family are integral to religious nation‐making. State elites and supporters (here members of the Basij, Iran's paramilitary organization) tie the blood of kinship to the blood and sacrifice of Iran‐Iraq War martyrs. They harness blood's relational and sacred properties in museum displays and commemorations to delineate and sanctify an Islamic nation composed of pure, kindred citizens. Food has similar efficacy: pious acts of sharing food at home infuse the rituals of state power, creating “what should be”—that is, citizens who embody familial piety, purity, and closeness to God. The Iranian case compels us to consider how a full spectrum of immaterial qualities, substances, and acts of kin making can inform the nation and its politics. [kinship, nation, blood, food, Basij, Islam, Iran]

Politics and the Universities in Postrevolutionary Iran

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, universities are meant to not only produce and distribute knowledge, but also to act as agents of political socialization. Since the establishment of the Islamic regime in 1979, the state has recklessly tried to control and Islamize universities in order to “purify” them from nonconformist students and scholars and train a new generation of devout Muslims for the state bureaucracy. Although these efforts have ultimately failed to create an Islamic university, they have led to massive brain drain and reduced the quality of Iranian higher education.

Politics and the Universities in Postrevolutionary Iran

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, universities are meant to not only produce and distribute knowledge, but also to act as agents of political socialization. Since the establishment of the Islamic regime in 1979, the state has recklessly tried to control and Islamize universities in order to “purify” them from nonconformist students and scholars and train a new generation of devout Muslims for the state bureaucracy. Although these efforts have ultimately failed to create an Islamic university, they have led to massive brain drain and reduced the quality of Iranian higher education.

Representations of Post-Revolutionary Iran by Iranian-American Memoirists: Patterns of Access to the Media and Communicative Events

One major element in the discursive reproduction of power and dominance is the structures and strategies of “access” to discourse. Using Van Dijk's argument of dominance and patterns of the preferential access to public discourse, this article attempts to offer more insight into general political, sociocultural, and economic aspects of “knowledge production” on post-revolutionary Iran in the United States in the ways Iranian American memoirs are promoted and publicized through major publishing companies, the popular press, and the mainstream media. Such representations strengthen and reinforce the political discourse surrounding Iran as an “undemocratic” and “barbaric” entity. This article discusses the ways in which the perceptions and views of a minority of Iranians, which often move in parallel with the demonized image of Iran in the United States, are vocalized and promoted through “privileged access” to discourse and “means of communication.”

The Historical Gaps and Political Development Problems of Iran

The analysis of the impediments to political development is one of the most important discussions which have major theoretical and political consequences. We cannot deny that fact that the forces influenced Historical Gaps can influence the Political Development of Iran. If we observed the process Political Development of Iran and the history of Iran we will find that it they have been evolving independently but still the changes in the environment of Iran have influenced them in addition to other things. These researches include the publications related to social and cultural history of the said period. In this paper we will initially identify the motivated ideologically and the state driven historiography trends. After that we will discussed it in contrast with the current evolution of historical studies of the period that is related to post-revolutionary Iran. In this study, takes Historical Gaps, a key element in this discussion, and explains the major Historical Gaps to political development in Iran.This paper focuses on the historical attitudes of people towards the political management of the society and the effect these attitudes have on slowing the development of this political system in the society. Historical Gaps will be extremely interested in this provocative text.

The New Academic Proletariat in Iran

In the past few decades two important events have occurred simultaneously in Iran: on the one hand, the number of universities and university students has increased dramatically and, on the other hand, the unemployment rate among university graduates has outrun the rate of the other unemployed groups in the country. In the present article, while explaining this phenomenon in the context of post-revolutionary Iran, we examine the formation of a new academic workforce as a result of the unrestrained growth in the number of universities, the so-called scientific development and development of commercial institutes that have reduced science to a commodity. In our view, owing to their status in society, this group of people can be called the research proletariat. The data for the present study has been collected through higher education statistics in Iran, and in-depth interviews with PhD and Master’s students as well as graduates in Iran.

Orientalism Beyond Belief: Critiquing the Problematics of V. S. Naipaul’s Islamic Excursion

This study aims to offer a critical analysis of V. S. Naipaul’s second Islamic travelogue Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (1998), which chronicles the author’s excursions to the 4 non-Arab Muslim countries of Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and Malaysia. This critique is presented, firstly, through problematizing the author’s theorization on the theme of Muslim conversion— which, according to Naipaul, has bred nothing but neurosis and nihilism in Muslim societies—and then through analyzing representations of the post-Revolutionary Iran of the late 90s. We argue that Naipaul’s representations fall within an Orientalist frame of reference in which Iran and its people are portrayed through various tropes of Othering in a narrative fraught with disinformation, exaggerations, and reductive treatment of complex sociopolitical phenomena. Finally, Naipaul’s reasoning in formulating conversion coupled with his myopic approach undermine the authenticity of his representations, resulting in what Said (1998) has dubbed “an intellectual catastrophe of the first order” (p. 42).