“Invitation to ‘Proper Sex’: Temporary Marriage, State & Society in Iran”

  • Starts: 12:00 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
  • Ends: 1:30 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
Shahla Haeri (Associate Professor, Anthropology) This presentation highlights the Islamic Republic of Iran’s multipronged attempt to “engineer” temporary marriage as simultaneously moral and modern, while aiming to reconstruct an “authentic” Islamic sexuality and gender hierarchy. I discuss briefly some of the implications of making sexuality, i.e., temporary marriage, a topic of national discourse in a conservative society like Iran, and focus specifically on the culturally sacrosanct issues of virginity, paternal permission, and gender justice. Caught in a rapidly changing society locally and globally, I frame the contentious relationship between state and society within differing visions of governance and social order; between the vision of an authoritarian Islamic state, and the public’s vision of modernity, agency and choice. Please RSVP to palmerm@bu.edu
Event Open To
public
Building
Anthropology Seminar Room, 232 BSR #102
Show Fees
free
Show Who
yes