Conceiving Iran's Future
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 CONCEIVING IRAN’S FUTURE: YOUTH AND THE TRANSITION TO PARENTHOOD MEHRNOUSH SHAFIEI INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC STUDIES MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL JUNE, 2011 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Arts—Thesis © Mehrnoush Shafiei 2 For my mother . 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................3 ABSTRACT/ABSTRAIT...............................................................................4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………............6 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION………………………………….........7 CHAPTER TWO: THE NATION................................................................23 CHAPTER THREE: SACRIFICE................................................................55 CHAPTER FOUR: RESPONSIBILITY.......................................................84 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION.............................................................109 WORKS CONSULTED…………………………………………………..117 4 ABSTRACT Since the publication of images of Iranian students’ raised angry fists storming the American embassy in 1979, the idea of Iranian youth has captured the world’s imagination and has been a source of puzzlement. The children of the Iranian revolution are today old enough to have their own children. Thus, one unique and original window from which to study Iranian youth is to investigate as they undergo the significant transition from youth to parenthood. This study will be in conversation with three expecting Montreal-based Iranian couples who fall in the cohort known as “the fruit of Iran’s revolution;” in other words, youth that have lived entirely under the post revolutionary regime. I will examine parenting as an imagined projection and investigate ways in which my interlocutors envision their life as a first time parent. I suggest that the institution of parenting, with its focal point in society, presents a suitable framework for disentangling the complex and elusive understanding of Iranian youth. 5 ABSTRAIT Depuis la publication en 1979 d’images d’étudiants iraniens, en colère et les poings levés, attaquant l’ambassade américaine, la jeunesse iranienne est devenue un sujet captivant dans l’imaginaire et une source d’incertitude pour bon nombre de gens à travers le monde. Aujourd’hui, « les enfants de la révolution iranienne » sont assez âgés pour avoir leurs propres enfants. Par conséquent, un moyen unique et original d’étudier ce groupe est d‘examiner sa transition de la jeunesse vers la parentalité. Cette étude se fera par le biais de conversations avec trois couples iraniens résidant à Montréal qui seront bientôt parents et qui tombent dans cette cohorte communément connue comme «le fruit de la révolution iranienne », en d'autres mots, ces jeunes qui ont vécu toute leur vie sous le régime postrévolutionnaire. Je regarderai la parentalité en tant que projection imaginaire et étudierai comment mes interlocuteurs envisagent de mener leurs nouvelles vies de parents. Je propose de regarder la parentalité, avec la société comme toile de fond, comme un cadre adéquat pour mieux saisir la jeunesse iranienne, sujet complexe et souvent insaisissable. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the individuals who graciously offered their time to participate in this research. I feel very honoured to have been granted access to such a special time in their lives. My colleagues at McGill University sustained me throughout the writing of this thesis through their friendships and intellectual engagements. I would specifically like to thank Sahar Rouhani who served as a soundboard for almost every aspect of this project. Warm thanks to Salwa Ferahian whose enthusiasm for the early stages of the research strengthened my sense of motivation. I would like to thank Karen Moore for encouraging me to keep the course at times when I was faced with personal difficulty. I especially would like to thank Adina Sigartu for her support, both logistically and emotionally. A portion of this thesis was written outside of Montreal and Adina’s kind words and warmth helped me fight feelings of isolation. My professors at McGill University inspired many aspects of this research: Professors Laila Parsons and Michelle Hartman made me think about cinema in new ways, Professor Malek Abisaab taught me the importance of gender and Professor Sajida Alvi encouraged me to consider questions of continuity and change. I am very much indebted to my thesis supervisor, Professor Setrag Manoukian for his thoughtful and patient guidance. Professor Manoukian helped me navigate my stages of interpretive impasse through countless hours of discussion and invaluable insights. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their love and support. In particular, my brother served as my lifeline during the final stages and without his help this thesis would not have reached fruition. 7 Chapter One: INTRODUCTION Beginnings I became interested in the question of Iranian youth when I travelled to Iran with my close friend Lily in 2006. Lily had grown up in Iran and had moved to Montreal roughly three years earlier to pursue an undergraduate degree at McGill University, and that is where we became acquainted. Unlike Lily, I am an Iranian Canadian and had lived in Canada since I was a young child, and before this fateful trip I had travelled to Iran exclusively with my family and rarely had the chance to escape family obligations and experience the world of the youth of Iran. This trip offered me the opportunity to enter that world. Lily, being a native of the country introduced me to her huge network of friends, and I introduced her to some of my own cousins who were close in age to us and they accompanied me during our nightly social excursions. We had travelled to Tehran in early August when the oppressive heat made any socialization during the day nearly impossible. Fun evenings were spent walking around city parks, sitting in coffee shops, and taking joy rides on the freeway with blasting music. In retrospect, I find it amusing how impressed by the whole scene I was, proudly telling my mother over the phone that “Iran has changed, people actually have fun here!” Of course, I realize today it wasn’t so much that Iran had changed, but rather my perspective had. Until then, my parents or other “adults” had been hovering nearby during most of my interactions with my cousins and other young Iranians. By escaping this arrangement and bringing along my friend Lily, I was able to see a whole new side of my cousins. Communication flowed more easily than it had before; conversations were raw and saucy as jokes were exchanged without 8 hesitation or embarrassment. Underground parties similar to what occurs on most North American college campuses, were common. At first it took me some time to adjust—I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that my cousins who displayed such impeccable manners and polite speech had, for lack of a better word, a wild side. Soon I started to become hypersensitive to everything that was happening around me and looked for deeper meanings in unlikely places: the punk rock hair styles of young men and women, the brightly coloured clothes with matching shoes, the Angelina Jolie posters and the rock music that blasted from cars. I felt as though I had discovered a brave new world within Iran and wanted to pursue the question of Iranian youth culture and share it with outsiders. My need to share with non Iranians “the real Iran” first started to develop when as a child I viewed the film Not Without My Daughter (1991) which depicts the escape of an American woman (played by Sally Field) from the cruel hands of her brutal and oppressive Iranian husband. This film perpetuates stereotypes about Iran and is a source of much anger and disappointment among Iranian immigrants. In my 25 years in Canada I have yet to meet a single Iranian Canadian who has not seen it; even today, it is not uncommon for this controversial film to be fiercely condoned in Iranian circles. I first watched this film at the tender age of eight years old; at that time I was a huge fan of Sally Field (waking up early on Saturdays to watch re-runs of her sitcom The Flying Nun) so understandably, seeing her play the wife of an Iranian man (who looked oddly like my own father) left a lasting impression on me. I remember that for some time during elementary school, I would hesitate to reveal to my school friends that I was born in Iran. Of course, my dark hair, thick eyebrows and Iranian name made it difficult to conceal my 9 ethnic background, not to mention that I was the only elementary student who had packed pistachio nuts as an afternoon snack. Only later, when I made my very first trip to Iran in the summer of 1997, did I finally come to terms with my Iranian-ness. My introduction to Iran coincided with my thirteenth birthday and it was a wonderful time in my life, dispelling the images of oppression and fundamentalism that my young mind had associated with Iran since watching the notorious Not Without My Daughter. In retrospect, I have come to realize that the combination of that film and my early positive experiences in Iran fuelled my desire to discover the “real Iran.” In the summer of 2006 I felt as though I had unveiled the “real” Iran and it was the world of the youth, filled with parties, dance and music. Although I did not know it at the time, that very summer there were numerous scholars and journalists reporting on the late-night party sessions, red lipstick, and the social lives of the young. The secret lives of Iranian youth and their rebelliousness was hailed to be the “smoking gun” that would finally help crack the cryptic “Persian puzzle.” Judging by the enormous success of these books, it is clear that there was a ready audience eager to be directed to the “real Iran.” As I became more and more relaxed with my new relationships with my young cousins, I felt as though I had “figured them out.” I was so confident in fact, that I wrote in my journal that summer that I predicted that once these “wild” young people “grew up” they would turn Iranian tradition on its head.