Conceiving Iran's Future
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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 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-84288-1 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-84288-1 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 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