UNIIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ MODERNITY, SECULARISM, AND THE POLITICAL IN IRAN A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in POLITICS with an emphasis in FEMINIST STUDIES by Omid Mohamadi December 2016 The Dissertation of Omid Mohamadi is approved: _________________________________ Professor Vanita Seth, Chair _________________________________ Professor Megan Thomas _________________________________ Professor Anjali Arondekar _________________________________ Professor Minoo Moallem ________________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Omid Mohamadi 2016 Table of Contents List of Figures iv Abstract v Acknowledgements viii Introduction: “Neither Secularism Nor Islamic Republic” 1 Chapter 1: The Iranian Women’s Movement: Hybridity, Rights, and Political Imaginaries 39 Chapter Two: The Politics of Time in Iran 95 Chapter Three: Art & The Islamic Republic 144 Epilogue: Historiography & Politics 189 Bibliography 201 iii List of Figures Figure 1: Shahyad Monument/Azadi Tower 158 Figure 2: The Imperial-Colonial Enemy 165 Figure 3: The Velayat-e Faqih 165 Figure 4: The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the export of the revolutionary tradition to Muslim lands” 165 Figure 5: Martyrs of the Iran-Iraq War 165 Figure 6: Moral Proclamation 165 Figure 7: Beautification Mural 165 Figure 8. Beautification Mural 1 by Ghadyanloo 169 Figure 9. Beautification Mural 2 by Ghadyanloo 170 Figure 10: Beautification Mural 3 by Ghadyanloo 171 Figure 11: Beautification Mural 4 by Ghadyanloo 172 Figure 12: “Woman with Dish Soap” by Black Hand 174 Figure 13: “Gaza” by Black Hand 174 iv Abstract Modernity, Secularism, and the Political in Iran by Omid Mohamadi In the last decade, theorists in anthropology and other disciplines have vigorously critiqued commonplace distinctions between secularism and religion. Highlighting how secularism is a form of Western epistemology, such theorists have argued this distinction is deeply problematic because it obscures secularism’s historical, political, and cultural particularity. My dissertation argues Iran is well situated to engage in this debate because its political terrain brings into relief how discussions of secularity and religiosity often fall back on an irresolvable dichotomy wherein secularism is defended without qualification or religious authoritarianism is ignored altogether. In an effort to move out of this impasse, my dissertation critiques the presumed neutrality of secularism without defending a thoroughly undemocratic Islamic Republic. Through an examination of three sites within Iranian politics since 1979, I show how alternatives to both secularism and undemocratic forms of Islam are already present in Iran. The first site that I explore is the contemporary Iranian women’s movement, specifically the One Million Signatures Campaign, which seeks full gender equality within the laws of the Islamic Republic. I argue that the internal logic of rights and a specific set of socio-political conditions that arose out of the revolution in 1979 made the newly fostered cooperation between Islamic and secular feminists within this campaign possible. Utilizing critiques of rights by poststructuralist and postcolonial feminists, I v arrive at a critical endorsement of women’s rights in Iran that calls for nurturing more radical political imaginaries by not treating rights jurisprudence as the apex of social justice struggles. My second site focuses on the politics of time and its role in the 2009 post- election uprising as a further example of the porous boundary between secularism and religion in Iran. After surveying the history of Iran’s three dominant calendars and the forty-day mourning cycle of Shi’ite Islam in the last century, I argue the Islamic Republic is founded on temporal simultaneity, a non-secular organization of time wherein past, present, and future are enfolded into one dynamic moment. I conclude that during the 2009 uprising, protesters initiated a crisis of legitimacy for the regime by reconfiguring temporal markers that comprise this symbolic foundation of the contemporary Iranian state. My final site is the visual culture in the Islamic Republic as well as Western understandings and depictions of it. I argue such analyses of artistic production in Iran by Western observers rely on a particular understanding of the state, religion, and art as discrete categories wholly separate from one another. This argument is twofold, the first part of which is a historical survey that shows how the relationship between art and the state in Iran over the last sixty years has been co-constitutive. On the basis of this history, I then explore contemporary Iranian street art, both sanctioned and illicit, to show how this convergence of art and the state has continued to unfold in the Islamic Republic. I show how the boundaries between culture and the state have not calcified under the current regime but remain dynamically in flux, albeit different ways than in the previous historical epoch. vi Lastly, I trace how the politics of secularism and religion both consolidates and frays the public/private divide within these three sites. Given this fact, the question of what to do with secularism and religion in Iran is ultimately a question of what to do about the divide between the private and public spheres. Taking up the issue of the double-bind structuring the public/private divide, I conclude my dissertation by surveying the ethical-politico limitations and possibilities of these alternative political imaginaries in Iran. vii Acknowledgements This dissertation is the culmination of many years of research and work that was made possible through the collective effort and support of so many people. My project has benefitted enormously from feedback I received in workshops hosted by the Emerging Worlds Initiative in UCSC’s Anthropology Department and the Humanities Studio on Regulating Sex/Religion for the University of California Humanities Research Institute’s Initiative on Religions in Diaspora and Global Affairs. I am also very thankful for two faculty members at UCSC, Neda Atanasoski and Mayanthi Fernando, who while not on my committee, nonetheless read over drafts of my chapters and gave me illuminative suggestions on where to take the project. Their acts of intellectual generosity came at crucial turning points in the writing of my dissertation and significantly shaped the contours of my arguments. Most importantly, I am incredibly grateful for the sustained guidance and direction I have received from my committee. Minoo Moallem and Anjali Arondekar have continually pushed me out of my comfort zone and have encouraged me to think more robustly about the stakes of my arguments across disciplinary boundaries- provocations that have significantly strengthened the foundation on which this dissertation stands. Megan Thomas has provided invaluable contributions to the theoretical scaffolding and analytic content of this project. As a mentor who has always been very generous with her time, Megan has through many phone calls, emails, and meetings been an indispensable force in helping me weather the difficult day to day challenges entailed in the writing of a dissertation. viii Since the beginning of my graduate studies at UCSC, Vanita Seth has significantly influenced, shaped, and molded my intellectual outlook. I could always count on going into her office with a mess of jumbled ideas and poorly written pages only to come out with a clear, coherent blueprint for going forward. Attentive to every aspect of this dissertation, from the minutiae of my argument within a particular chapter to the implications of my project for the larger academic field, it is Vanita’s mentorship that has made so much of this work possible. I am so thankful for the wonderful friends who have sustained me throughout this process: Sandra Harvey, Claire Lyness, Steve Araujo, and Sam Cook- a family which has now grown to include Megan Martenyi and Cassie Ambutter whose orbit I have come into towards the end of my time at UCSC. I am so incredibly lucky to inhabit this community that has provided a safe haven from the neoliberal-inspired forms of precarity and uncertainty that make graduate student life at times seemingly untenable, especially within a public institution. You all continue to be an unending source of support, strength, solidarity, and care- for which I am forever grateful. To family and friends in Iran, thank you so much for both your support from afar and your hospitality during visits which have unfortunately been much too infrequent. I hope I have offered a rendering here that adequately conveys the complexity of day-to-day life, both past and present, within Iran- especially the long shadow of a revolution that has loomed across families, generations, and continents. To my grandparents, whose ability to withstand the loss of a child, a decade long war, a revolution, being separated from my immediate family by thousands of miles, and countless other tumultuous events has given me strength to have hope for the future. ix While I am deeply saddened that my grandfather is not here to witness the finishing of this dissertation, the memory of his kind and gentle spirit remains. It is to him that this work is dedicated. Thank you to the Liptons and Koguts, especially to Bonnie and Peter, for your support and encouragement over the years- I am honored to be a member of your lovely tribe. To my extended family, to the Noels and Kisers thank you for being an unwavering source of support throughout my journey from community college through this moment and beyond. To my sister, Mina, you have done much, much more than simply ensuring I could handle studying in a noisy environment once I left for college. Your encouragement has helped to keep me going in this difficult process and your razor-sharp wit and intelligence has kept me on my toes. To my parents, words are unable to express how grateful I am for everything you have done for me.