Modernity, Sexuality, and Ideology in Iran
The Life and Legacy of a Popular Female Artist
There has been extensive research on modernity in Iran and the 1979 Revolution, explaining social transformations from various perspectives. This book focuses on the component of sexuality, which has been highly influential in social changes and modernity, demonstrating that the traditional discourse on sexuality played a crucial role in hindering the flourishing of modernity and in the creation of the Islamic Revolution. In this context, the relationship between the discourse on sexuality and ideologies, as well as their resistance to modernity, is examined. These discussions are accompanied by the life and works of Shahrzad (dancer, actress, poet): a method that analyzes the role of ideology and traditional gender norms in the lives of female artists and explains how a successful female artist becomes homeless at the peak of her career. The book shows that popular culture (dance, cinema) and anti-imperialist discourses (religious and Marxist) simultaneously defended masculinity, which had been restricted by Pahlavi feminism. Ultimately, the 1979 Revolution closed cabarets, banned dancing, criminalized eroticism, and empowered masculinity. An additional chapter in the Persian version states that these concepts played a role in the emergence of social movements such as “Where Is My Vote?” and “Woman, Life, Freedom.” For analysis, two analytical models, “paradigmatic response” and “periodic cultural movements,” are presented.
