Women with Mustaches and Men Without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian ModernityDrawing from a rich array of visual and literary material from nineteenth-century Iran, this groundbreaking book rereads and rewrites the history of Iranian modernity through the lens of gender and sexuality. Peeling away notions of a rigid pre-modern Islamic gender system, Afsaneh Najmabadi provides a compelling demonstration of the centrality of gender and sexuality to the shaping of modern culture and politics in Iran and of how changes in ideas about gender and sexuality affected conceptions of beauty, love, homeland, marriage, education, and citizenship. She concludes with a provocative discussion of Iranian feminism and its role in that country's current culture wars. In addition to providing an important new perspective on Iranian history, Najmabadi skillfully demonstrates how using gender as an analytic category can provide insight into structures of hierarchy and power and thus into the organization of politics and social life. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Early Qajar | 11 |
NineteenthCentury Transformations | 26 |
Copyright | |
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adult Akhundzadah al-Dawlah amrad amradnuma argued beard beardless beauty became become beloved chapter Constitutionalist cultural Diba discourse domain Edited emblem essay Europe European farangi farangi'ma'ab Fath'ali Shah female feminism figure fukuli gaze gender and sexuality ghilman girls Habl al-matin heteronormalization heterosexual heterosocial hijab homeland homoerotic homoeroticism homosexuality homosocial honor Husayn Hushang I'timad al-Saltanah instance Iraj Mirza Iran Iran-i naw Iranian modernity Isfahan Islamic Kashani Khan Kirmani Khanum khawrshid king language lion lion-and-sun male homoeroticism marriage masculinity men's Mihrangiz modernist mother Muhammad Musavat Muslim mustache Muzaffar al-Din Shah Najmabadi narrative Nasir al-Din Shah Nida-yi vatan nineteenth century niqab nishan object of desire one's patriotic Persian poetry political Qur'an representations Riza Rustam Safavi same-sex practices schools Shah's shaving Shaykh Shukufah social story Sufi Talibuf Tarikh-i Tavakoli-Targhi Tehran tion transformed translation University Press unveiling vatan veil visual wife woman women women's education young male zard