Suchergebnisse

Nationalism, nationhood, and ethnicity, as Eric Hobsbawm argued, are social processes constructed essentially from above, yet cannot be understood unless also analyzed from below.1 Inspired by European Orientalism, the intellectual advocates of Western-oriented nationalism attempted to establish a new Iranian identity based on Persian language and Iran's pre-Islamic past.2 This made Iranian nationalism an attractive ideology for some political elites, and was later endorsed by the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–79) when nationalist ideology replaced Iranianness with Persianity. In this conception, there was no room for the ethnic diversity of a nation-state that is the heir of an ancient empire. The elites' aspirations to uniformity put pressure on members of ethnic groups to conform their way of life to a new model of Iranianness, Persianized and pro-Western. Every nonconforming element was regarded as a sign of backwardness and possible threat to the modern nation and its territorial integrity.

The relationship between occupation & women's status in postrevolutionary Iran is examined. Two distinct phases of gendered status occurred in Iran. From the triumph of the revolution in 1979 until 1986, the concept of sharia was the guiding principle of women's status. Sharia reestablished Islamic dress codes & a minimum age of 13 for marriage of girls, dictated limitations for women in divorce & child custody, prohibited women's access to the judiciary, & segregated women occupationally by forcing them out of the public sphere & into the domestic realm. A period of reconstruction began in 1986 & extends to present time, marked by scarcity of professional workers & acknowledgement by the Iranian political elite that many women have valuable professional skills & could perform adequately in the public sphere. Women have regained lost jobs & challenged both the patriarchal state & occupational segregation by making inroads into prestigious & well-paid positions. The political elite has been forced to adopt a more tolerant & moderate ideological discourse regarding working women & their value. D. Generoli