Posts by tag
Feminism
9 posts
A Fashionable Revolution: Veiling, Morality, and Consumer Culture in Iran
The everyday practice of the mandatory veil has indeed been noticeably shifting ever since the first generation of women who were born after the 1979 Revolution came of age in the mid-1990’s. This kind of fascination with Iranian women and their sense of dress, however, obscures the complexities surrounding how Iranian women actually practice the mandatory veil. These articles produce simplistic generalizations by treating women’s bodily surfaces as a measure of societal progress and morality; romanticizing the notion of resistance; and eliding the significance of class and consumer culture in everyday urban life.
Queer and Trans Subjects in Iranian Cinema: Between Representation, Agency, and Orientalist Fantasies
Historically, some Europeans have fantasized about the closed-door sexual lives of Middle Easterners, especially homosocial spaces and same-sex relations. The movie Circumstance has received relatively positive public reception in the West due to this conformity to Western Orientalist imaginaries; ]Facing Mirrors challenges the hegemonic and Orientalizing narrative of Iran’s sexual and gender minorities, and is thus ignored from the cultural public domain.
No, Iran Didn't Just Ban Women From Universities.
I awoke yesterday morning to a barrage of excited, fearful, and shocked emails and messages demanding to understand why Iran had suddenly decided to ban women from entering university. Given…
Misreading Feminism And Women’s Rights in Tehran: Beyond Chadors, Ninjabis, And Secular Fantasies
It is nearly impossible to read any article about Iranian women and not spend the entire time rolling your eyes. Historically, the Western media has tended to make liberal use…
The Shahs of Sunset… and the Rest of Us: "Persian Money" in an Era of FBI Surveillance
After years of rumors and talk of a Persian version of the Jersey Shore, the nightmare is becoming reality this March when “the Shahs of Sunset” premiers on Bravo. The…
Iranian Women Rapping and Kicking Ass
A few months ago TM Bax released its newest music video, “Tehran Mal-e Mast.” The video itself is a great look at Tehran and explores these guys’ relationship with the…
Patriarchy & Islamism between Tehran and Cairo
The newest viral sensation in the Egyptian blogosphere is a video purporting to be a message from the “Women of Iran” directed towards the “Women of Egypt and Tunisia,” exhorting…