The Female Perspective of Iran and the West

Or: Resetting Nation, Culture, Religion and Womanhood from an Exile Position

Essai Scientifique , 2024 , 24 Pages

Philologie Anglaise - Autres

This paper concentrates on two diasporic Iranian writers and their memories in order to show how their personal experience can be understood and read as a kind of self-orientalisation and purgary of their own lives. It is these two personal stories which unfold an intensive grip on the reader while also leaving space for a generalisation of the terrible situation of the many Muslim women who have to struggle daily.

For centuries East and West have been interested in understanding, discussing and criticising each other's religions, cultures and ways of life – both with suspicion and curiosity alike. Of special interest for both sides in past and present can be seen in matters of gender dichotomy since the West too often (above others) focused on the exclusion of female members of society from the public spheres whereas Eastern representatives heavily criticised female emancipation processes in the West which were seen as steps to destroy traditional family structures. One result from this was a stereotyped picture of Muslim women as obedient, silent or abused victims of patriarchal structures originating in an Islamic past.

This picture of the female has interestingly changed over the last decades, especially in the aftermath of 9/11 when more and more female authors from the Middle East literarily speaking un-veiled and dismantled these stereotyped concepts of all female. The protests in Iran in 2022 after the death of Jina Maahsa Amini on September 16th can therefore be considered to be the preliminary highlight of this new development within Iran which so far considered itself to be the perfect Islamic state erected following the throwover of the Shah in 1979.

The new group of Muslim female writers (so to speak novelists disposing of an Islamic background) at home or abroad started a new trend of hundreds of publications which included various presentations of female Muslim life of Arab, African or - as in our case – an Iranian background. Most of these novels were, however, written from an exile position, thus throwing light on female characters where past and present were interwoven from a new home. It is exactly this in-between-ness of now and then where female self-orientation and re-orienatation are placed – glued together by memory as a central element of narration.

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• Abtract.
• Iranian female writing - a short survey..
  • Female Iranian authors in the USA .....
  • Concepts and characteristics of Iranian female writing.
  • Self-orientation, re-orientation and self-making: A short look at Iranian Muslim women's memoirs .........
• The presentation of home and exile in: Afschineh Latifi`s Even after all this time - A story of love, revolution, and leaving Iran (2005) and Davar Ardalan's My Name is Iran (2005).......
• Outlook
• Bibliography.....

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This essay aims to analyze the narratives of Iranian female writers in exile, focusing on their personal experiences and how they relate to broader themes of gender, culture, and identity. The essay explores how these writers use their stories to challenge stereotypical representations of Muslim women and offer alternative perspectives on Iranian society and its relationship with the West.

• The portrayal of Iranian women in Western and Eastern perspectives
• The impact of exile on female identity and self-orientation
• The use of memory and narrative to reconstruct personal experiences
• The interplay of home and host country in shaping female narratives
• The challenges and opportunities facing Muslim women in the diaspora

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

• Abtract: This chapter provides an overview of the essay, highlighting the historical context of East-West relations and the changing representation of Muslim women in literature. It emphasizes the importance of understanding female narratives from an exile perspective, particularly in the context of contemporary Iranian society.
• Iranian female writing - a short survey: This chapter offers a brief survey of Iranian female writing, focusing on the emergence of female authors in the United States and the key themes and characteristics of their work. It also explores the concept of self-orientation and re-orientation as it relates to the experiences of Iranian Muslim women.
• The presentation of home and exile in: Afschineh Latifi`s Even after all this time - A story of love, revolution, and leaving Iran (2005) and Davar Ardalan's My Name is Iran (2005).......: This chapter delves into the narratives of two Iranian female writers, Afschineh Latifi and Davar Ardalan. It analyzes their personal experiences of exile and how they use memory and narrative to explore themes of loss, identity, and cultural displacement. The chapter focuses on the complex interplay of home and host country in shaping their narratives.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

The essay focuses on Iranian female writing, exile, identity, gender, culture, Islam, diaspora, memory, narrative, self-orientation, re-orientation, home, host country, and the representation of Muslim women in literature.

• Auteur: Dr. Matthias Dickert (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2024
• Pages: 24
• N° de catalogue: V1438147
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346996541
• ISBN (Livre): 9783346996558
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: Coming of age, selfhood, emancipation, identity making, memory, trauma, in-between-ness, Iran, Islam, male dominion, border crossing, exile, diaspora, East and West, tradition versus modernity