ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Studia Iranica Upsaliensia 27 Identity Construction The Case of Young Women in Rasht Padideh Pakpour Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Ihresalen (21-0011), Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3, Uppsala, Friday, 25 September 2015 at 13:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in Swedish. Faculty exami- ner: Professor Sally Boyd (Göteborgs universitet). Abstract Pakpour, P. 2015. Identity Construction. The Case of Young Women in Rasht. Studia Iranica Upsaliensia 27. 217 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9298-4. This study took place in the city of Rasht, which is the capital of Gilan Province, situated in North-Western Iran. The aim has been to investigate how a group of young Rashti women con- stitute their identities through their talk-in-interaction, and how they relate to the concept of Rashti, be it the dialect, people living in a geographical area, or a notion of collective characte- ristics. The participants constitute their identities by using different social categories to position and categorise themselves and contrast themselves with others. In positioning and categorising they use various discursive means, such as code-switching, active voicing, and extreme-case for- mulations. Moreover, the social categories also overlap and work together when the participants negotiate and re-negotiate their identities, making an intersectional approach highly relevant. The methods used in this study are of a qualitative nature and belong to the third wave of sociolinguistics (Eckert 2012). The analysed data consists primarily of staged conversations, whereas participant observation, field notes, and natural conversations have been used to help the researcher in understanding the field. The study adopts an emic or participants’ perspecti- ve through the use of membership categorisation analysis and conversation analysis, but also within a theoretical intersectionality framework. In many of the examples, the culture of Rasht and Gilan is a re-emerging theme, and it is contrasted with that of the rest of the country. Gender norms and gender roles are very central to the study, as these young women over and over again describe themselves as much freer and less controlled than women in other parts of the country. Gender is made relevant when the par- ticipants discuss how the local traditions surpass both national (religious) laws and social codes in other places. The Rashti and Gilaki language varieties also play a role in the constructing of the Rashti identity of the participants. There is, however, a discrepancy between the participants’ values vis-à-vis Rashti and Gilaki as a dialect or a language, and how they value being a Rashti as well as Rashti and Gilaki culture. In the majority of conversations the participants expressed a highly positive opinion as to their backgrounds as Rashtis, while at the same time the Rashti and Gilaki language varieties were mostly valued in very negative ways. Keywords: Iran, Rasht, intersectionality, sociolinguistics, identity, membership categorisation analysis, social categories, language norms Padideh Pakpour, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Box 635, Uppsala University, SE-75126 Uppsala, Sweden. © Padideh Pakpour 2015 ISSN 1100-326X ISBN 978-91-554-9298-4 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-259613 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-259613) Printed in Sweden by Kph Trycksaksbolaget, Uppsala 2015 To my grandmother Hajieh Rastegar Gigasari, my parents Ali Pakpour and Fati Safaei, my brother Pedram Pakpour, and to the Rashti people Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 17 1.1. Background ................................................................................... 17 1.2. Aims and purposes ........................................................................ 19 1.3. Structure of the study .................................................................... 20 2. Theoretical approaches ......................................................................... 23 2.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 23 2.2. Developments in the sociolinguistic field and interactional sociolinguistics .................................................................................... 23 2.2.1. The three waves of sociolinguistics ...................................... 23 2.2.2. Influential ideas on social interaction ................................... 29 2.3. Sociolinguistic and ethnographic research conducted in Iran ...... 31 2.4. Social identities and intersectionality ........................................... 33 2.5. Conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis .. 37 2.6. Positioning and categorisation ...................................................... 41 2.7. Discursive means .......................................................................... 42 2.7.1. Direct speech and active voicing .......................................... 42 2.7.2. Code-switching ..................................................................... 43 2.7.3. Extreme case formulation ..................................................... 43 2.8. Theoretical positions in this study ................................................ 44 3. Data collection procedures and methods of analysis ............................ 45 3.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 45 3.2. Access to the field and the participants ........................................ 45 3.3. Data and methods of data collection ............................................. 46 3.3.1. Staged and natural conversations .......................................... 47 3.3.2. Participant observation and field notes ................................. 49 3.4. Reflexivity and the role of the researcher ..................................... 51 3.5. The participants ............................................................................ 53 3.5.1. Presentation of the participants ............................................. 53 3.5.2. The amount of data from the staged conversations ............... 55 3.6. Ethical considerations ................................................................... 55 3.7. The analysis of the data ................................................................ 57 4. Sociolinguistic background .................................................................. 59 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 59 4.2. The Gilan Province ....................................................................... 60 4.3. The sociolinguistic background of Gilan ...................................... 65 4.3.1. Language and dialect – a description .................................... 65 4.3.2. The mutual relationship between Persian and Gilaki ............ 66 4.4. Iranian language policies during the 20th century ......................... 68 4.4.1. The impact of the Pahlavi Dynasty ....................................... 68 4.4.2. The language policies of the Islamic Republic ..................... 70 4.5. The development of gender norms in 20th century Iran ................ 72 4.5.1. The public sphere in Iran ...................................................... 77 4.5.2. The private sphere in Iran ..................................................... 79 5. The Rashti identity in relation to speaking Rashti ............................... 81 5.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 81 5.2. Language and society ................................................................... 82 5.3. How Gilaki and Rashti are described and evaluated .................... 86 Example 1. The loose Rashti dialect .......................................... 86 Example 2. The solid Esfahani accent ........................................ 92 Example 3. The man at the exhibition ........................................ 97 Example 4. Speaking the Rashti dialect does not match up with our clothes and looks ................................................... 101 Example 5. It’s a low status thing ............................................ 105 Example 6. We all understand Gilaki ....................................... 108 5.4. The relationship between language usage and gender ................ 110 Example 7. The high class guys can speak Gilaki .................... 111 Example 8. Girls must speak pure Persian ............................... 117 Example 9. The classmate had an accent ................................. 123 5.5. Concluding discussion ................................................................ 126 6. The Rashti identity in relation to geography and region .................... 131 6.1. Introduction ................................................................................ 131 6.2. Collective memory and place ..................................................... 132 6.3. The protecting mountains ........................................................... 134 Example 10. The Alborz Mountain Range providing protection .................................................................................. 134 6.4. The Caspian Sea and the gateway to Europe .............................. 139 Example 11. The Mediterranean lifestyle ................................ 139 Example 12. The European influence .....................................