Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War Webinar

Please join us on Thursday, May 27, 2021, at 4:00 pm PST for a book talk titled "Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War" by Dr. Mateo M. Farzaneh (Northeastern Illinois University) in discussion with Dr. Ali Akbar Mahdi (CSU Northridge/Ohio Wesleyan University).

Register for this Zoom webinar here: (http://bit.ly/WomenIranIraqWar)

About the book:
Eighteen months after Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, hundreds of thousands of the country’s women participated in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) in a variety of capacities. Iran was divided into women of conservative religious backgrounds who supported the revolution and accepted some of the theocratic regime’s depictions of gender roles, and liberal women more active in civil society before the revolution who challenged the state’s male-dominated gender bias. However, both groups were integral to the war effort, serving as journalists, paramedics, combatants, intelligence officers, medical instructors, and propagandists. Behind the frontlines, women were drivers, surgeons, fundraisers, and community organizers. The war provided women of all social classes the opportunity to assert their role in society, and in doing so, they refused to be marginalized.

The author of the book, Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh is an associate professor of history and the Principal of The Mossadegh Initiative at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. He is also the author of The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Clerical Leadership of Khurasani.

Ali Akbar Mahdi is a lecturer in sociology at California State University, Northridge, and a professor emeritus from Ohio Wesleyan University. He is the author of Sociology of the Iranian Family, Teen Life in the Middle East, Culture and Customs of Iran (w/ E. Daniel), Sociology in Iran (W/ A. Lahsaeizadeh ), Resources for Teaching Sociology of Development and Women in Development, and Iranian Culture, Civil Society, and Concern for Democracy.

This event is presented by UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies & Culture.