Questioning the global gays(ze): constructions of sexual identities in post-revolution Iran

Abstract

This paper seeks to question the global discursivity about sexual politics in Iran while examining ways in which the discourse constructed about sexuality in Iran (by those outside Iran) contrasts with lived experiences and actual narratives of young Tehranis as they speak about their own sexual identities. The author begins by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2000 and 2007 with young people (ages 18–30) in urban Tehran and Mashhad, which looks at what young Tehranis refer to as ‘Iran's sexual revolution’, or enqelab-i-jensi, in their own words. In detailing ways in which the discourse on sexuality and sexual identity is changing, this paper talks about the politicization of the body by members of the regime, as well as the strategic deployment of sexuality and the comportment of resistance as young people's involvement in the sexual revolution in Iran paves the way for their involvement in pushing for social and political reform. The sexual revolution taking place in Iran today is trying to reformulate sexual identity, and trying to carve out a space to talk about, think about, and experiment with sexualities not sanctioned by members of the regime. In this paper, I aim to describe the strategic construction of sexual identity, chronicling the transition in the narratives of my interlocutors who insisted, up until 2005, that the hetero/homo binary – so fixed in the ‘West’ – did not exist nor translate in the Iranian case, as they move in the space between the fluidity of sexual identity, to the politicization of sexuality towards social reform.

Keywords:

• Iran
• sexuality
• sexual politics
• social movements

Notes

1. See Mahdavi (2008).

2. For a full discussion and description of the sexual revolution in Iran, please see Mahdavi (2008).

3. For an excellent discussion of reasons behind Iranian Islamists’ aversions to fun, please see Bayat (2007).

4. Behaviors deemed ‘morally questionable’ differ based on interpretation but can be as small as wearing excessive make-up or bright colors, to public displays of affection, to drug use and sex work.

5. The many meanings of Shari'a or Islamic law are complex and vary depending on who is interpreting the laws and how. In this article I refer to Islamic law as it has been interpreted by members of the clerical regime in power in Iran since the revolution, though I acknowledge that this is just one set of interpretations of Islamic law.

6. I do not mean to reify the term ‘West’ nor assume that all countries in the ‘Western’ world (which is usually used to refer to the United States, Canada and Europe) are monolithic. Here I am just referring to the fact that in recent years, many Western countries have seen a split between a defined heterosexual and homosexual identity. As Jonathan Ned Katz notes in his book, The Invention of Heterosexuality, these terms and identities are social constructs, impacted by the social, cultural and political environment of the times. As the paper discusses, the hetero/homosexual identity binary that had become somewhat reified in parts of the US and Europe at the end of the twentieth century, did not have the same trajectory in parts of the Middle East, including Iran.

7. For further discussion of fluidity of sexualities (in a non-Muslim context) please see Halperin (2004) and Katz (1995).

8. Note that this is not restricted to Iran, for more on this topic please see the work of Halperin or Duggan (2001).

9. For a full text of the speech please see Global Research (2007, September 27).

10. For an in-depth discussion of the history of sexuality and sexual identity in Iran please see Najmabadi (2005).

11. See above reference or Katz (1995) for further discussion.

12. See Long (2009).