Description
Book SynopsisIdentities in Crisis in Iran aims at finding answers to the questions about the puzzling character of the Iranian identity. The contributors acknowledge that identity, especially when it is faced with fundamental tensions as in the case of Iran, is a phenomenon that is constantly developing via factors involving the private self and common social components. This book addresses the tension many Iranian people face that lie between the Persian culture and the Shi'a religion, women versus men, and culture versus traditions.
Trade ReviewA thorough, provoking, and challenging collection of chapters and a valuable contribution to the field. -- Ali Ansari, University of St. Andrews
This collection of articles aims at the complicated character of the Iranian identity and provides interesting case studies for it. Lucid in both arguments and expositions this volume will be essential reading for anyone engaged in the study of Iran. -- Uzi Rabi, Tel Aviv University
In this volume, the editor has assembled an interesting cast of novel insights on the complex, challenging, and interesting subject of identity in Iran, through the prisms of politics, culture, and religion. The combination of seasoned and junior Israeli and Iranian scholars discussing questions such as national/Iranian versus ultra-national/Islamic identities and analyzing the links between identity and issues such as Iran's nuclear program, the social media, and even sexuality and beauty all make this collection quite intriguing. -- Soli Shahvar, University of Haifa
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction, Ronen A. Cohen Section One: Historical and Current Perspectives on Persian, Islamic, and Contested Religious Identities Chapter One: The Unending Battle between the Persian and Islamic Identities of Iran, Harold Rhode Chapter Two: National Identity or Political Legitimacy: The Reconstruction of the City of Bam, Ladan Zarabadi Section Two: An Islamic-National Identity and Nuclear Program Chapter Three: The Islamic Identity Project: Between Coercion and Voluntarism, Ofira Seliktar Chapter Four: Iran’s National Identity and the Nuclear Program: A Rational Choice Theory Analysis, Farhad Rezaei Chapter Five: Overcoming “the –isms”: Iranian’s Role in the Modern World, from the Perspective of Mahmūd Ahmadi-nezhād, Moshe-hay S. Hagigat Section Three: Sexuality, Beauty, and Social Networking—Between the Private, Self, and the Public Sphere Chapter Six: The Identity Designers of the Self in Sexuality, Beauty, and Plastic Surgery in Iran, Ronen A. Cohen Chapter Seven: Iranians against the “Other”: Iranian Identity in the Social Media Era, Raz Zimmt Conclusions Bibliography List of Contributors Index
