Desire recast: the production of gay identity in Iran

Abstract

This paper traces the transformation of sexual space in Iran during the past 200 years; a process which culminated in the emergence of Iranian gays at the beginning of this century. We reconcile the work of Najmabadi [2005. Women with mustaches and men without beards: gender and sexual anxieties of Iranian modernity, Berkley: University of California Press], Foucault [1990. The history of sexuality, Vol. 1: an introduction, New York: Vintage Books], and Massad [2002. Re-orienting desire: the gay international and the arab world. Public Culture 14(2), 361-385; 2007. Desiring arabs, Chicago: University of Chicago Press] and describe distinct moments of modern subject construction.We claim that gays are constituted in Iran through a process of heteronormalization of social space, followed by the 'fixing' of deviant types in law and medicine and then the availability of a positive frame of reference which makes its appearance in the mid-1990s when the discourse of identity and human rights enters Iran. We conclude by signalling a new chapter in the constitution of sexual space in Iran in which gay activists experiment with Persian culture to create gay-friendly speech.

Examining Neural Correlates of Sexual Preferences between Persian Homo- and Heterosexual Males Using Psychological Assessments and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Specifying Cognitive Map: A Limited and Cross-sectional Study

“…64,65 Meanwhile, the viewpoints on a genetic basis for being homosexual could be accustomed to hold various thoughts. 66,67 Although the traditional doctrine of homosexuality is firmly established among Muslims due to the prohibition of homosexuality in Islamic laws, [68][69][70] some Iranian homosexuals engage in social activities against homophobia and encourage organizations (such as the Armed Services and Iranian Psychological Association, and Iranian Society to Support Individuals with Gender Identity Disorder) and individuals to highlight this episode in their communities.…”

In search of queer spaces in Tehran: Heterotopias, power geometries and bodily orientations in queer Iranian men’s lives

“…While being an insider certainly would have afforded us with very different access points and degrees of affiliation and shared cultural understandings, not having such access meant that we had to spend a considerable amount of time reading and informing ourselves about the Iranian context and its complicated and nuanced history vis-a-vis faction-ridden governance of theocratic and democratic elements in the Islamic Republic and the process of secularization under the Pahlavi regime (Afary, 2009; Korycki and Nasirzadeh, 2016; Mir-Hosseini and Hamzic, 2010; Najmabadi, 2014). However, we are aware that any binary oppositional framing of outsider-insider status remains problematic and that identifications with our subjects are, as Nowicka and Cieslik (2014: 8) assert, ‘unstable, mobile and shifting’, and cannot simply be reduced to an alignment along ethnic and national lines.…”

Queer English Language Teacher Identity: A Narrative Exploration in Iran

“…In addition, Yip (2004) has noticed that to be Iranian and homosexual is seen just like "a survivor of "westoxication" (being inebriated by mainstream Western culture)" (p. 340). Indeed, even the couple of Iranian priests who do recognize the simple presence of queer bodies inside the Islamic Republic of Iran quite often give them a role as the Western "other" (Korycki and Nasirzadeh, 2011).…”