Introduction
2019 marked the fortieth anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Yet the turbulent events of late 2019 and early 2020 are stark reminders that Iranians continue to resist for their liberation. Since the very beginning of that uprising, the status of gender politics and its relationship to the revolutionary project has been a site of debate and contestation both among revolutionary actors and outside commentators.
Art Exhibition
The five artists showcased here all grew up in the 1980s, the first decade following the 1979 Revolution and the decade of the Iran-Iraq War. Their varying artistic approaches make their works distinct from the victimizing images of Middle Eastern women highly romanticized by the orientalist gaze.
Archive of Incomplete
This paper investigates the concept of “incompletion” in the art projects made during revolutionary times by focusing on the interrupted career of women artists in Iran during 1960s and 70s. By pointing at the vast number of incomplete artworks and unfinished films that were produced in Iran during the revolutionary era, this research highlights the importance of creating an archive for incomplete art projects.
Urban Experience in Tehran
Moving beyond narratives of a controlling state and restrictive social and cultural norms, this essay shows the nuanced experiences of women as they navigate public spaces and explores some of the ways in which the city and its public spaces work as both prohibitive structures and emancipatory contexts.
Rewriting Gender in Post-revolutionary Iran
Through an analysis of narratives from legal experts and practitioners of white marriage in Iran, this article reveals the motives for electing this practice, and the ways in which it is made legally and socially navigable. When situated within official state discourses and implementation of gender laws, this analysis brings to light the power and agency that Iranians have in controlling gender and sexuality norms and discourses.
Verdicts of Science, Rulings of Faith
This essay offers an account of the contemporary treatment of transsexuals in Iran, situating the official process in a discursive nexus that includes the law and psychology as well as psychiatry, and is engaged in establishing and securing a distinction between the acceptable “true” transgender/sexual and other categories that might be confused with it, most notably the wholly unacceptable category of the “true” homosexual.
Interview with Orkideh Behrouzan
Dr. Orkideh Behrouzan speaks with co-editor Azadeh Tajpour about her childhood in Iran during the Iran-Iraq War and how these experiences are represented in her creative and scholarly work. In particular, this interview centers two of her creative pieces which bring to light the impact of war and militarism on one’s experience of gender and youth.