Iran Archives | Contending Modernities

Kharg, the Orphan Pearl: War, Extraction, and Spectral Histories

Babak Rahimi
March 26, 2026March 26, 2026

Kharg still holds histories waiting to be uncovered—spectral traces that have shaped the island through mourning and devotion, where land and sea were not merely resources but sites of sacred belonging.

Revolutionary Dreams, Repressive Realities

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
January 17, 2023January 17, 2023

Women stand at the forefront, driving this nation-wide revolt because there exists the deepest contradiction between their massive participation in social affairs and the patriarchal laws and denigrating regulations that seek to govern their bodies and appearances.

Modern Religion, Modern Sign, Modern Ritual

Series: Symposium on Say What Your Longing Heart Desires

Niloofar Haeri
January 18, 2022January 25, 2024

When we recite, in time we come to embody the language of the recitation. We hear our own voice and at times that of others.

The Divergent Encounter between Prayer and Poetry in Contemporary Iran

Series: Symposium on Say What Your Longing Heart Desires

Setrag Manoukian
December 17, 2021January 20, 2022

The relationship between prayer and poetry in these women’s practices is far from simple. Prayer and poetry are too similar to be separated, but too different to be equated.

Language and Feeling in Ritual Practice

Series: Symposium on Say What Your Longing Heart Desires

Monique Scheer
December 2, 2021January 20, 2022

Conventional wisdom, biased toward Protestant Christianity, would claim that “modern religion” is the kind that fits best to modern society, which is defined and purportedly organized as secular.

Teaching Islamic Poetry Beyond Orientalism

Series: Symposium on Say What Your Longing Heart Desires

Brenna Moore
November 30, 2021January 20, 2022

Haeri’s book enables us to keep this mystical language alive in our classroom while making sure we don’t ossify it as the orientalists did, and only see it as part of Islam’s past, the domain of rarefied male elites, and as disconnected to living Muslims today

The Unsettled Morality of Kidney Sales

Series: Science and the Human Person 2019 Series

Elham Mireshghi
May 23, 2019May 29, 2019

Despite the religious sanctions afforded by Islamic jurists, selling kidneys in Iran remains socially stigmatized and morally obscure.

The Use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Iran

Robert Tappan
November 22, 2013August 12, 2019

Iran, though not alone among Muslim-majority countries with active fertility clinics, is unusual in its acceptance of third-party reproductive techniques, including the use of donor eggs and embryos, as well as surrogacy.

Articles tagged as "Iran"