Islamization of Iran over the centuries has caused the marginalization of women. After the Islamic revolution of 1979 and with the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the position of women in society changed fast. Iranian women struggled to recover elements of their freedom, social roles, cultural rights, and artistic activities that had been encouraged and supported by the last Iranian monarchy, the Pahlavi Dynasty . While women's cultural activities in music and dramatic arts reduced, Iranian women from religious Shiʻa families developed and expanded private cultural activities, among them several religious rituals, which are public to all women from their cities. Many of these rituals involve musical and theatrical elements. They are led by at least one female leader who guides the ritual attendees and performs the ceremony. While in some traditions, female leadership is assigned a completely political role, in many local cultures, this kind of leadership is predominantly related to artistic or religious activities. This chapter deals with the female leadership in local ritual traditions practiced by Iranian-Arab-Shiʻa women from an ethnographic perspective. It explores how female leaders have or have not been able to adapt, sustain, and develop their practices. The main focus is on the women's rituals from Khorramshahr city in the south-western Iranian province of Khuzestan.
Laṭmiyeh is a commemorative Shia women ritual, which is practiced by Iranian-Arab-Shia women from the southwestern- Iranian province of Khuzestan. This mourning ritual is combined with metrical singing, body movements and self-flagellation. Despite its sad lyrics and context, laṭmiyeh has an energetic sound atmosphere, one that resembles joyful celebrations from the region. Powerful flagellations in this vocal performance replace percussion and strengthen the rhythmic ambience of the songs, even though they are unpleasant and painful acts for their practitioners. This article investigates the sonic elements and the body role in laṭmiyeh in the twenty-first century Khorramshahr, Iran.
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