Women’s Lives in Iran: Between the Religious-Traditional and New Horizons: Free 10-Week Online Seminar, Spring 2023

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Hosted on Zoom – Register for link

Tuesdays

March 14 – May 16, 2023

1pm-2:30pm Eastern Time

Description: This 10-week online seminar will explore the social, political, and cultural contexts that underpin the lives of women in Iran. The co-leaders will examine Iranian women’s lives under sharia law and the ways young women resist religious and ideological cultural politics in Iran in their everyday lives. During the first part of this seminar, the co-leaders will identify and analyze reasons that the Islamic Republic of Iran is experiencing constant street protests, and why women have had no choice but to protest in the streets. It will look at the politics and policies concerning women’s bodies, such as reproductive coercion, child marriage, polygyny, forced pregnancy, and the compulsory wearing of the hijab imposed by the Islamic regime. During the second part of the seminar, the co-leaders will describe the emergence of the main agents of change in society, including women themselves, and explore how Iranian officials are able to sideline their demands.

More Information:

Participants who attend at least 8 complete seminar sessions will receive a certificate of satisfactory completion from the Dean of The New School for Social Research. In order to obtain the certificate, participants must register and log in with the same email address each week.

Registration will remain open for the duration of the seminar. Registrants will receive a reminder email with the Zoom link each week.

The seminar sessions will be recorded and available to registrants on Vimeo the following week.

Seminar Leaders:

Dr. Naima Mohammadi

Naima Mohammadi is a visiting scholar in the Sexuality, Gender, and Women Studies Center (SGWS) at the University of Pittsburgh. Her studies focus on Muslim women issues in non-Muslim majority environments.

Dr. Mohammad Rezaei

Mohammad Rezaei is a researcher at Frankfurter Forschungszentrum Globaler Islam (FFGI), Goethe University Frankfurt. His field of study is “cultural politics in post-revolutionary Iran.”

Week 1: March 14, 2023
Seminar Overview

Week 2: March 21, 2023
Reproductive Coercion: Textual and Contextual Conditions of Marriage under Sharia Law in Iran

• Suggested reading:
  McGlinn, S. (2002). “Family Law in Iran.” 9-11.
  Mir-Hosseini, Z. (1993). “Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law: Iran and Morocco Compared.” 17-18.

• Further reading:
  Tremayne, S. (2006). “Modernity and Early Marriage in Iran: A View from Within.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 2 (1): 65-94.
  Hoodfar, H. (1999). The Women’s Movement in Iran: Women at the Crossroads of Secularization and Islamization (Vol. 1).

Week 3: March 28, 2023
Gender and Sexual Minority Groups in Iran

• Suggested reading:
  Leeman, A. (2009). “Interfaith Marriages in Islam: An Examination of the Legal Theory Behind the Traditional and Reformist Positions.”
  Mohammadi, N. (2018). “Life Experiences of Sexual Minorities in Iran: Limitations, Adaptations and Challenges.” Quality & Quantity 52 (2): 719-737.

Week 4: April 4, 2023
Compulsory Wearing of the Hijab in Iran

• Suggested reading:
  Mohammadi, N., Maghsoodi, S., Hasanpoor, M., & Maskouni, F. H. (2022). “The Interpretation of Face Veiled Women in Balochistan Region: A Geo-Cultural Study.” Quality & Quantity: 1-13.
  Mohammadi, N., & Hazeri, A. M. (2021). “Two Different Narratives of Hijab in Iran: Burqa and Niqab.” Sexuality & Culture 25 (2): 680-699.

Week 5: April 11, 2023
New Social Movements Against Islamic Jurisprudence in Family Relationships

• Suggested reading:
  Boostani, D., Mohammadi, N., & Maskouni, F. H. (2022). “Iranian Dating Sites: A Phenomenological Study on Muslim Married Women.” In Systemic Inequality, Sustainability and COVID-19 (Vol. 29): 155-173.

• Further reading:
  Tamadonfar, M. (2001). “Islam, Law, and Political Control in Contemporary Iran.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 40 (2): 205-220.

Week 6: April 18, 2023
Cultural Engineering after 1979

• Suggested reading:
  Ali Akbar Tajmazinani (2018). “From Cultural Revolution to Cultural Engineering: Cultural Policy in Post-Revolutionary Iran.” In The Routledge Handbook of Global Cultural Policy, ed. Victoria Durrer, Toby Miller, and Dave O’Brien. 503-519.

• Further reading:
  Said Golkar (2012). “Cultural Engineering under Authoritarian Regimes: Islamization of Universities in Post-Revolutionary Iran.” Digest of Middle East Studies 21 (1): 1–23.

Week 7: April 25, 2023
Underground Iran

• Suggested reading:
  Janet Afary (2009). Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Chapter 9 and Conclusion.
  
• Further reading:
  Laudan Nooshin (2005). “Underground, Overground: Rock Music and Youth Discourses in Iran.” Iranian Studies 38 (3): 463-494.

Week 8: May 2, 2023
Feminist Generation: Conventional Feminism

• Suggested reading:
  Kurzman, Charles (2008). “A Feminist Generation in Iran?” Iranian Studies 41 (3): 297-321.

Week 9: May 9, 2023
Feminist Generation: Virtual Feminism

• Suggested reading:
  Akhavan, Niki (2015). “Social Media and the Islamic Republic.” In Social Media in Iran: Politics and Society after 2009, ed. David M. Faris and Babak Rahimi. 213-230.

Week 10: May 16, 2023
Conclusion: Features and Significance of the Iranian Women’s Struggles