Anthropology of Interrogation: My Time in Evin Prison (2016-Current)
This is an accidental field research. On 13 February 2016, I left Montreal for Iran intending to collect all the archival material from the early 20th century that I needed in order to complete my manuscript, “One Hundred Years of Iranian Women in the National Electoral Politics.” On 9 March, as I was packing to leave Iran the next day, my residence was raided by the Intelligence Services of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. They confiscated my passports, books, computer, phone, and other personal items, and I was told to present myself to the revolutionary courts and barred from leaving Iran. Subsequently I was taken to Evin prison as my interrogators claimed I was both a CIA and MI6 operative, attempting to foment a ‘velvet revolution. I was charged with “dabbling in feminism and security matters,” where I was subject to 45 often long sessions of interrogation by a team of up to nine intelligence officers, at least two at any one time.
As an anthropologist I am a trained participant observer, and I chose to treat my situation as fieldwork. Each time I was summoned for interrogation, facing an onslaught of questions and psychological tactics designed to intimidate, I came with questions in mind and tried to direct the exchanges to my own unspoken ends as a researcher. I wanted to understand the regime’s hostility to social scientists; to make sense of the state’s significant investment in promoting gender inequality; to elicit an understanding of the state and state actors’ concepts of “The West” and democracy. Since my release on 26 of September, I have been reworking on my notes and data preparing to public talks and eventually a book on my research and experience in the infamous Evin prison.
Revisiting Academic Freedom as a Transnational Right (2016-2017)
Advancements in sciences, including social sciences and humanities, often result from the human capacity to ‘think outside the box’. Irrespective of time and place such efforts have frequently bumped up against entrenched conventions, mores and norms. Indeed, unconventional intellectual approaches and critical thinking have cost some of our predecessors their freedom, and sometimes their lives, even as they opened the way for subsequent thinkers to claim the right to try and imagine the world in new and different ways. Today the right to critical thinking and academic freedom as the framework for universities and learning centres is largely an accepted principle in western contexts. Although it is clear that academic freedom is a collective right and responsibility, few have paid attention to how selectivity maybe defined and what the criteria for inclusion should be. Is selectivity based on the institution scholars maybe be engaged in? or is it based on national boundaries? Given that, in this era of globalization and the communication revolution, many scholars collaborate across boundaries or conduct research in other socio-political contexts, how can their academic freedom to be protected? Why was the UNESCO document (1997) that attempted to create a blueprint for international academic freedom not successful? What are the possible steps we can take to make recognition and operationalization of academic freedom a transnational right? This topic became one of my major preoccupations since my arrest in 2016 largely on the basis of my academic publications and my interrogators’ dismissive attitude to my claim of academic freedom.
Return to Pronatalism: Women’s Human Rights and Socio-Cultural Revision in Iran (2014- 2015)
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s decision to implement pro-natal policies in 2012 following one of the most astonishingly successful, intentional decreases in fertility in the world, from 3.4 in 1989 to 1.5 in 2012, led to heated public debates both nationally and transnationally. Proponents support the program as a crucial corrective to increase population to ensure Iran’s long-term economic and political survival and independence, and provide a degree of security for Shi’a Muslims worldwide. However, opponents claim that the imposition of pro-natal policies is not only economically disastrous given ongoing high unemployment and under-employment, but also ignores the human rights of Iranians, particularly women, who are being essentially directed through these policies to increase their fertility as a national and religious duty in order to achieve the political goals of the state.
This study examines the new pro-natal policies outlined in Bills ‘315’ and ‘446’ and in several religious and ideological directives from the office the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The study explores the impact of these bills on government policies as they relates to women’s rights, particularly in the arenas of labour and reproduction
Women’s Sport as Politics in Muslim Contexts (2006-2014)
The increasingly restrictive and unconventional interpretation of Islamic mores by political Islamists, stressing the need for observing an Islamic code of modesty goes far beyond requiring the wearing of the hijab that covers the entire body except the face and feet. The political Islamists have deemed women’s bodies and their physical movements in public spaces to be a source of disorder, arousing male sexual desire and creating social chaos; thus they insist onlimiting women to private spaces. In response to these views, many women have taken up the Muslim veil, which religiously legitimizes their movement in public, simultaneously demanding access to the public space and presenting their own interpretation of Islam, which is based on gender justice and gender equality. In the absence of formal democratic channels for citizens to have a real influence on public policies and programs in many Muslim majority societies, women have embarked on politicizing spaces normally viewed as being outside politics. It is in this context that fashion and sport in particular have proven to be arenas of vociferous contestation where public gender politics are played out and where women engage in re-mapping the boundaries of their public citizenship rights and their access to the public spaces, particularly in societies where political Islamists are in control of the state, such as Iran, or where they have considerable influence over the government, such as Malaysia or Algeria, and have given voice to very conservative and patriarchal gender ideologies and policies. This field study is based on a longitudinal research economics study of the pros and cons of various strategies that Iranian women have adopted to insure their access to public spaces and public sphere.
Women and Representative Politics: The Pros and Cons of Parliamentary Gender Quotas (2007 -2011)
Despite women’s economic, educational, legal and labour advances, their persistent under-representation in the world’ s parliaments, even in established democracies, has attracted the attention of social scientists and women’s advocates. Parliamentary gender quotas in particular have emerged as a popular strategy for improving women’s representation in legislative and political bodies both numerically and substantively. There are various types of gender quotas and processes for increasing female representation in formal political bodies; not all have equally satisfying results. This study examines eight case studies to illustrate the structural and procedural conditions that can influence the success or failure of gender quotas to achieve their goals.
Pioneer Women: Women Taxi Drivers in Iran (2009-2010), Concordia University
The policy of gender segregation in the Islamic Republic of Iran in part has been designed to push women out of public life. However, women have used imaginative ways not only to remain in public life and the labour market but also to break down some of the social barriers that deny them access to certain forms of employment. Women taxi drivers are one such example of innovation and the redefinition of women’s employment opportunities. The idea and acceptance of women taxi drivers is spreading very fast in Iran, and, notably, in very conservative towns and cities. The aim of the research was to assess the political and social impact of this new field of employment on the lives of women drivers, as well as on society as a whole. We were also interested in assessing the responses of officials and conservative religious leaders to this particular development, given the ways in which policy on women taxi drivers both enforces gender segregation and simultaneously challenges the regime’s ideology by bringing women into the public sphere in new roles and in larger numbers.
Religion, Politics and Gender Equality: The Case of Iran (UNRISD, January 2008-December 2010).
The prediction that secularism would sweep the world has been confounded in recent years as religion has left the place assigned to it (by theories of modernity) in the “private sphere” and thrust itself into the public arena of moral and political contestation. Four seemingly unrelated, yet almost simultaneously unfolding, developments are often identified as signifiers of this shift: the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran; the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland (1970s-1980s); the role of Catholicism in the political conflicts of Latin America; and the public re-emergence of Protestant groups and organizations (such as the “Moral Majority”) in the U.S. These developments have revived the question of whether in fact religion ever lost its public dimension, and social scientists are busily trying to invent theoretical and analytical tools to extend their understanding of the role of religion in public life. The implications of the forceful re-insertion of religion in politics are significant for women whether they live in Latin America, the USA or India. But in the context of Iran, where formal secularism has disappeared and religious tenets rule the day, the implication is very severe, as conventional Islam, like other Abrahamic religions, rejects gender equality. This project examines developments in the area of public and electoral politics and how women as actors, both individually and collectively, engage in this arena to reinforce, contest and reinvent religious understanding, hegemonic norms, actions and representations. The question is whether women, through their active redefinition of citizenship rights as religious rights, could support women’s claim to gender equality and lead the way for a democratization of religion, and by implication the state and society in Iran, in the absence of one or another form of secularism.
Quest for Education: Afghan Refugee Women and the Educational Movements in Iran and Pakistan and Post- Taliban Afghanistan : Living with The Effects of Prolonged Armed Conflict and Forced Migration in Muslim Contexts (2007-2013).
Building on studies I conducted in Iran and Pakistan during the decade of 1997-2006, centred on Afghan refugees’ education, this project examines the change of attitude in Afghanistan to formal secular as well as religious education. In particular the project focuses on the change of attitude towards the education of women, whose right to education, under the pretext of religion, was extremely politicized and played a major role in the 30 years of civil war. A further aspect of this project is documenting the various community responses to the unfulfilled need to school children and youth in the cities as well as in villages and smaller towns in post-Taliban Afghanistan. The project also examines the extent to which the new state educational policies and educational bureaucratic structures have incorporated the educational experiences of some 6 million long-term refugees, in order to become more inclusive of various social and ethnic constituencies and as well as addressing its lack of material and skilled human resources.
Women’s Empowerment In Muslim Contexts: Gender, Poverty And Democratisation From the Inside-out (2006-2010). Collaborative project housed at City University, Hong Kong: Funded by Department for International Development, UK
The project focuses on women’s indigenous empowerment strategies (extending life options and choices) in Muslim contexts in Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, China. History shows that women’s endeavours to assert their rights in such contexts are often suppressed by violence legitimated through moral codes, assertion of cultural authenticity, and religion. Significant exceptions are when empowerment has occurred through indigenous and culturally appropriate strategies, particularly at key political and economic turning points in a given society. This project examines the various indigenous strategies, as well as major policy interventions, that have empowered women, creating a more democratic family structure and a more inclusive and gender-just society. The Iran component includes five distinct field research projects; Women, Religion and Political Participation; Women’s Labour Market Participation, Women’s Health and Sexuality, Women and Family Law, and Women in the Public Sphere, including Women and Sport and Women’s Movements.
Between the Constitution and Afghan Family Law: Consideration for Reform of Family Law in Afghanistan (2002-2006). Funded by Rights and Democracy
The history of modern Afghanistan has been characterized by tension over state attempts at reform of family law, and tribal leaders’ attempts to resist reform. The result has been several popular rebellions against the central state, including the fall of rulers, in particular in 1929 and 1978. Now, for the first time in Afghanistan’s history, it is women, from all walks of life, who are demanding reforms in response to major socio-economic changes resulting from over twenty-five years of war, civil war and large scale displacement, and the consequent breakdown of traditional social structures and institutions. The project is documenting and analyzing the causes of previous governments’ failure to achieve reform and examining the diverse strategies that Afghan women adopt to achieve reform of the family code. In addition to looking at economic factors and changes, the project documents the diverse ways that the large refugee and diaspora Afghan communities’ exposure to other Muslim contexts has fostered new understandings and alternative visions of gender roles and “Muslimness.” The project examines major factors that have contributed to demands by Afghan women for family law and other legal reform and a new national gender vision within an Islamic framework. The project also documents the resistance and challenges to Afghan women’s demands.
Children and Adolescents In Sahrawi and Afghani Refugee Households: Living with The Effects of Prolonged Armed Conflict and Forced Migration (2002-2005). Housed at Oxford, University UK. Funded by the Mellon Foundation
This is a collaborative and comparative research study of Sahrawi children in Algeria and their Afghani counterparts in Iran under the auspices of the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, UK. My responsibility wasfor the Afghan portion of the stud,y which aims to bridge the theoretical and applied divide common to much of the research directed at children and adolescents. Using a participatory research approach, the study examines the ways children and adolescents in Afghani refugee families in Iran live with the effects of prolonged conflict and forced migration. The primary objectives of the research are two-fold: (1) to contribute to a better understanding of child and adolescent development in that context without being constrained by western models elaborated by developmental psychology; and (2) to provide local, regional and international non-governmental organizations and international humanitarian agencies, as well as UNHCR, UNESCO and UNICEF, and national governments with a more nuanced understanding of the effects of prolonged conflict and forced migration on children and adolescents and their care-givers (e.g., effects on sense of identity and belonging). The project aims to further our theoretical understanding of issues of concern as well as contributing to the practical concerns of improving delivery, policy and programmes and to thereby help practitioners provide better services. (My collaborators in this project are Prof. Dawn Chatty, Director of the Oxford Refugee Centre, and Professor Randa Farah, Department of Anthropology, Western Ontario).
Study of Health and Medication Use in Iran: A Gendered Perspective (2002). Funded by World Health Organization
This interdisciplinary project is part of a cross-cultural study that includes a random sample from major cities in six different countries. It was conducted during my sabbatical leave with the collaboration of two colleagues from the Medical Faculty of TehranUniversity. The project trained 10 recently-graduated family physicians to collect data on the public perception and use of medication, including alternative (herbal) medicines, and on folk and religious practices intended to improve physical and mental health. As there are no courses in the sociology or anthropology of health and health care in Iran, this project introduced physicians to the social study of health and medicine. The young doctors conducted interviews in 300 households chosen randomly from the city of Tehran. One concern of this comparative study is to investigate whether women across cultures use more medication than men and, if so, whether there are biological reasons for the difference.
Muslim Refugees (Afghans) in Muslim Majority States(1999-2002). Funded by the Mellon Foundation
This is collaborative research carried out under the auspices of the Law and Policy Program, Columbia School of Public Health. The research was conducted among several different displaced Muslim communities, including Afghan refugees in Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan, to investigate how the Muslim identity of refugee populations influences the way humanitarian aid is organized and delivered, and ultimately how the aid is received and perceived within the refugee communities. Since 80% of the nearly 20 million refugees in the world today are said to be women and children, the vast majority of whom are Muslim and since we knew very little about their situation, this research centred primarily around women and their household experiences. The focus of the research is the examination of the way in which Islam — including “mythic-history” couched in the idiom of Islam — is used to forge, reinforce or protect individual and collective identities in exile, while at the same time being a source of control, conflict, and dispute within and between communities. More specifically, the research examines the way in which the refugee communities view their Muslimness as legitimizing their relationship with the host countries, as well as with international and humanitarian agencies.
Engendering Citizenship in the Muslim Contexts: Iranian Women at the Intersection of Citizenship and Family Code (1998-2001). Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
The study focuses on the way in which continued masculine assumptions about citizenship and a neglect of cultural diversity have effectively disenfranchised women in Iran and the Middle East, leaving them even more dependent on their patriarchal family and community ties. The study examines the evolution as well as the diversity of debate on Iran’s Islamization of personal status laws and the underlying issues of gender equity in Islamic law among religious/political leaders, independent religious authorities, and women’s advocates. The study also documents strategies adopted by women who attempt to circumvent legal constraints and the extent to which these strategies are successful.
The Impact of the Codification of Muslim laws on Iranian Women (1992-1999). Funded by the Mellon Foundation
This research project examines the ways in which the codification of Muslim family laws under the Islamic Republic of Iran influences gender relations by defining the rights and duties of women within marriage and within their families of origin. The study also explores the social and legal effects of the introduction of the regime’s version of Islamic personal status law and its gender vision on women’s labour market participation. Particular emphasis is placed on identifying strategies women adopt individually and collectively to improve their situations.
Reproductive Rights and Family Planning in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1996-1997). Funded by the Mellon Foundation
This study examines the volte-face from the Islamic Republic’s pro-natalist policies to their ingenious use of Islam to promote birth control and build one of the world’s most successful family planning programs. The study also examines women’s responses to demands for curbing their fertility in a society that has dictated motherhood, ideologically and legally, as the most appropriate role for women.
Integration of Muslim Women in Canadian Society (1992-1994). Funded by Concordia University
This project focused on: strategies adopted by Muslim women of various ethnic groups in the cities of Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto in order to integrate themselves into Canadian educational institutions and the labour market; possible gender role modification and changes in gender relations; the ways in which Muslim women themselves evaluate these changes; and their experiences of formal and informal interaction with members of dominant groups and other minority groups.
Survival strategies and domestic politics in low-income households in Cairo, 1983-1994 (1992-1995). Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
This field study focused on the political economy of Egypt and the impact of the introduction of structural adjustment policies as they are reflected in the household economy and survival strategies of low-income and newly urbanized neighbourhoods of Cairo. The first phase of intensive field research (1983 to 1985) was followed by several short visits. The second phase of this longitudinal study, carried out between 1992 and 1994, examined socio-economic and ideological changes in Egypt resulting from rapid structural adjustment policies implemented in the last phase. An added focus of this phase of the research was changes in gender ideology and the variety of women’s responses to structural adjustment policies.