Creating the Islamic Republic of Iran: wives and daughters of martyrs, and acts of citizenship

Abstract

This paper develops a notion of citizenship which accounts for interruptions of, and compliances with, routines in governance. It applies the concept beyond a legal status and electoral practice to decipher how everyday encounters with the state can lead to creative institutional reconfigurations. Focusing on the wives and daughters of martyrs from the Iran-Iraq war (1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988), this paper poses ideologically committed contestation and collaborations with national structures of power as acts of citizenship. With particular attention to temporality and constructive uses of memory, this discussion introduces a governing technique created and utilized by women to remake the state as they assert a self-determined citizenry status.

Methodology Matters in Iran: Researching Social Movements in Authoritarian Contexts

“…Not only their families, but also media, schools, and the majority of state agents of socialisation in Iran taught them that almost every aspect of their life is a political space in which a political performance is required. The very private mourning of martyrs' widows, for instance, is turned into a show of anti-imperialism by the state (Saeidi 2010).…”

What Is So Special about Field Research in Iran?

“…Not only the 1979 revolution, but the Iran-Iraq war too, have had a crucial role in demarcating citizenry categories, with the formation of the notion of belonging to the state and to whom the state belongs. 15 By virtue of such a mutual recognition, citizens are allocated a specific status within state structures and society, from which they can make demands to the state. Foreign and dual-citizens that visit Iran to conduct research are also placed into political categories based on conclusions drawn from national, personal and local profiling techniques.…”

Reconsidering Categories of Analysis: Possibilities for Feminist Studies of Conflict

“…There are also strong associations between individual activism and curtailment of the state's capacity to enforce its preferences in the contemporary Middle East. 67 More specifically, I link the above interlacing of affect and emotions to Engin Isin's notion of an activist citizen, to better contextualise its historical significance to the post-1979 Iranian state. 68 Enlivening the activist citizen may capture specificities about women's subjective experiences that the classic liberal paradigm of citizenship misses due to decontextualised notions of the nation state, polity and personhood.…”