Table Of ContentNafiseh Sharifi
Female Bodies
and Sexuality
in Iran
and the
Search For
Defiance
Female Bodies and Sexuality in Iran
and the Search for Defiance
Nafiseh Sharifi
Female Bodies
and Sexuality in Iran
and the Search
for Defiance
Nafiseh Sharifi
School of Oriental and African Studies
London, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-60975-1 ISBN 978-3-319-60976-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60976-8
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For my mother, Zhinous.
P
reface
The topic of this book was first born out of my curiosity and personal
interest in the differences between my mother and my own perceptions of
our female bodies and sexuality. I wanted to see whether we, as two gen-
erations who grew up in different socio-political contexts, have different
opinions about our bodies. If there are differences or similarities, how
were they constructed? Do sex and sexual relation have different meanings
in our lives? Through months of extensive fieldwork in Tehran, I started
collecting personal narratives of Tehrani women who belonged to the
1950s and 1980s generations. The result was my PhD thesis and eventu-
ally this book.
Through an intergenerational approach, I discuss the contradictory
definitions of womanhood in the Iranian context and how women’s
embodiment is constructed in the intersection of different discourses on
women’s sexuality.
This book also aims to fill the gap in the literature on Iranian women
by addressing both the complexity of women’s positionality in Iranian
society and women’s relations with different authoritative discourses that
shape their sexual and bodily experiences. In contrast to the extant litera-
ture, in which women’s agency is simply represented through their acts of
resistance against the authoritative institutions, such as the Islamic
Republic, here through a comparative analysis of the experiences of two
generations of Iranian women, I discuss the necessity of moving beyond
binaries—such as the defiance/compliance framework—in analysing
women’s bodily behaviours and strategies.
vii
viii PREFACE
I would not have been able to finish this book without the aid and sup-
port of countless people. I must express my gratitude to my advisors and
colleagues at the Centre for Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and
African Studies (SOAS) in London. First of all, I would like to thank my
advisor and mentor Ruba Salih. Her support, attention to detail, hard
work and meticulous scholarship have set an example I hope to match
someday. I am also grateful to Nadje Al-Ali and Laleh Khalili for their
insightful remarks and valuable guidance throughout this project; Colette
Harris and Kathryn Spellman-Poots for their constructive comments on
my thesis which made it easier to turn it into a book. I should also thank
Shaina Greiff for her excellent work in editing and proofreading the final
manuscript and the editorial team at Palgrave Macmillan, especially Anca
Pusca for her time and support since receiving the book proposal.
I am forever grateful to the women of this book—my interviewees—
who trusted me, let me into their homes, told me their stories and shared
their most private and personal experiences. I would not have been able to
finish my research without their help and contributions.
Most of all, I want to thank my parents and my brothers for their love
and encouragement, for supporting me and giving me the confidence in
all my pursuits. Without them, I would never have gotten to where I am
today. Special thanks to Amin, for his patience and care throughout all the
hard, stressful days of finishing my PhD, and later this book.
School of Oriental and African Studies Nafiseh Sharifi
London, UK
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Background of the Context: The Two Generations 1
Youth, Sexuality and the Islamic Republic 4
Research Method and Fieldwork Encounters 9
The Interview Process 11
The Issue of Trust and Confidentiality 14
Positionality 15
Mapping the Fieldwork 17
Bibliography 20
2 Conceptual Framework 23
Introduction 23
The Emerging Concern: Demystifying Women’s
Passive Subordination 24
Power and Resistance Framework 26
The Limits of Binary Analysis: Redefining
Resistance and Agency 28
Bibliography 32
3 Learning Sexuality 35
Introduction 35
Population Policies and the Topic of Sex 37
Globalised Media: New Sources of Learning Sexuality 40
The Question of ‘Normality’ 42
ix
x CONTENTS
The Post-Revolutionary Discourse of Sexuality 47
The Religious Discourse and Women’s Perception of Sex 47
Combining Hadith with Science 53
Conclusion 57
Bibliography 59
4 Narratives of Virginity 63
Introduction 63
Socialising Women About Virginity 64
The Social Aspects of Virginity 67
Virginity as a Bargaining Tool 70
Losing Virginity: The Younger Generation’s Experience 73
Confirming Bride’s Virginity and Changes in Social Customs 79
The Blood-Stained ‘dastmâl’ 79
The ‘Bride’s Health Certificate’ 85
Hymen-Repair Surgeries and Fake Virginity 89
Conclusion 92
Bibliography 96
5 Narratives of Menstruation 99
Introduction 99
Menstrual Body 100
The Construction of Shame 100
Medicalising Menstruation: Knowledge Versus Tradition 107
Menarche and the Ritual of Slapping 110
Naturalising Menstruation 113
Keeping the Secret 116
Appropriating Restrictions 123
Conclusion 125
Bibliography 127
6 Narratives of Marriage 131
Introduction 131
Different Approaches, Different Expectations 133
Marriage in Time of the Revolution 135
Politicised Widowhood and Marital Relations 141
Family and Marriage Arrangements 149
Marriage for Post-Revolutionary Generations 156
CONTENT S xi
Temporary Marriage 162
Divorce 167
Conclusion 176
Bibliography 178
7 Conclusion 181
Contextualising Women’s Narratives of Sexuality in Iran
and Its Theoretical Implications 182
Moving Beyond the Binary of Resistance/Subordination 184
Bibliography 185
Appendix: Selected Glossary 187
Index 191
