Heirs of Modernity in Rural Iran
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Erika Friedl
Abstract
Rural Iran is grievously understudied, considering that over half of Iran’s inhabitants live in villages and in small towns. The few published studies of village or tribal communities may not allow generalizations based on quantitative data, but they serve as examples of social developments in the countryside. The literature and my observations during travels in Iran largely mirror what I describe here for a small town in Boir Ahmad, Southwest Iran. In terms of achievements and goals, if not of access to resources and of quality of life, even people in remote hinterlands participate in the national trends of socio-cultural and economic development in Iran. I argue that these trends and an ideology of progress that motivated the rural/tribal people of this study from the time they founded their community, have led to discontent even though they fitted well with national goals of modernization and improved living conditions.
Abstract
Rural Iran is grievously understudied, considering that over half of Iran’s inhabitants live in villages and in small towns. The few published studies of village or tribal communities may not allow generalizations based on quantitative data, but they serve as examples of social developments in the countryside. The literature and my observations during travels in Iran largely mirror what I describe here for a small town in Boir Ahmad, Southwest Iran. In terms of achievements and goals, if not of access to resources and of quality of life, even people in remote hinterlands participate in the national trends of socio-cultural and economic development in Iran. I argue that these trends and an ideology of progress that motivated the rural/tribal people of this study from the time they founded their community, have led to discontent even though they fitted well with national goals of modernization and improved living conditions.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Notes on Transliteration VII
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Main Intellectual Trends
- Intellectuals and Society in Iran since 1953 17
- The Trajectory of the 1953 Military Coup and the Course of Liberal Islam in Iran: A Sociological Analysis 31
- Constructing and Deconstructing Othering: Polycentrism versus Westoxication in Iran 60
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Part II: The Voices of the Less Visible
- Insurmountable Hurdles to the Countering of Patriarchal Gender Discourse under a Clerical Oligarchy? Experiences of (Islamic) Feminists in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–2009) 89
- Heirs of Modernity in Rural Iran 112
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Part III: Social Change in the Mirror of Art
- The Rebellious Man and the Courageous Woman: Social Criticism and Gender Relations in Iranian Film Production before and after the Islamic Revolution 131
- Between Change and Persistence: Reżā Julāʾi’s Short Story Miti-Jenn as a Mirror of Social Developments in Iran 155
- Note on Contributors 177
- Index of Names and Places 179
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Notes on Transliteration VII
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Main Intellectual Trends
- Intellectuals and Society in Iran since 1953 17
- The Trajectory of the 1953 Military Coup and the Course of Liberal Islam in Iran: A Sociological Analysis 31
- Constructing and Deconstructing Othering: Polycentrism versus Westoxication in Iran 60
-
Part II: The Voices of the Less Visible
- Insurmountable Hurdles to the Countering of Patriarchal Gender Discourse under a Clerical Oligarchy? Experiences of (Islamic) Feminists in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–2009) 89
- Heirs of Modernity in Rural Iran 112
-
Part III: Social Change in the Mirror of Art
- The Rebellious Man and the Courageous Woman: Social Criticism and Gender Relations in Iranian Film Production before and after the Islamic Revolution 131
- Between Change and Persistence: Reżā Julāʾi’s Short Story Miti-Jenn as a Mirror of Social Developments in Iran 155
- Note on Contributors 177
- Index of Names and Places 179
