In Search of Transformative Justice in the Lives of Iranian Immigrant Women: Violence, Female Decency, and Performativity in Diaspora

• In Event: Iran, Worlding, and the Poetics of Space

Abstract

The question of gender roles and female performativity and its relation to immigration is significant in women’s studies particularly among diasporic communities in the U.S which have witnessed different waves of migration from predominantly Muslim countries in the last six decades. Based on my interviews with Iranian women living in the U.S, I analyze topics like female decency, dignity, and concurrently undermine some stereotypical beliefs about Iranian immigrant women. Afterward, different manifestations of violence that women undergo before and after migration are discussed and in response, it is articulated how transformative justice provides remedies for them in both societies.

Presenter

• Zahra Abedinezhadmehrabadi, Western Kentucky University