Ladan Rahbari

University of Amsterdam | UVA · Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Bodybuilding is a hyper-masculinized sport and widely perceived unfit for women. In Iran where women face struggles and spatial limitations to participate in sports, women bodybuilders are breaking the boundaries and becoming increasingly visible using digital media. This research studies two Instagram pages dedicated to Iranian women’s bodybuildin...

Transnational solidarity has been taken up by feminist scholars, social scientists and activists who discuss or practice solidarity with the plights of different individuals, groups, and communities. This paper addresses transnational solidarity by investigating World Hijab Day, a campaign that shows solidarity with Muslim women by encouraging non‐...

In Iran, the politically sanctioned discourses of embodiment and body management are based on binary notions of gender and sexuality. These discourses are contested by social trends that reflect political dissent. This article uses a combination of content and visual analysis of three Instagram profiles dedicated to fashion to answer the question:...

In the autumn of 2014 in the city of Isfahan, a series of acid attacks targeted women who were driving in urban public spaces. The violence raised public fear among inhabitants of Isfahan. The Isfahan serial attacks were widely perceived as systematically organized and politically motivated. As a result of the attacks, Isfahan’s female inhabitants’...

In Flanders-Belgium, a Belgo-Iranian politician has gained nationwide attention for her critique of Islam. Safai's political discourses are built around her opposition to the violation of women's rights in Iran, and to the hijab as a political-patriarchal symbol. Through this latter opposition, she has gained prominence among Flemish nationalists....

On the fifth of February 2022, a man gruesomely murdered his seventeen-year-old wife, Mona Heydari, in a city in a southern province of Iran. The man then shocked bystanders by strolling in public spaces while carrying his wife’s severed head. This paper focuses on the case of Mona’s killing and investigates the state, media, and online user-create...

This paper looks into ageist and generationalist assumptions that penetrate queer spatio-temporal imageries and explore how to resist oppressive temporalities. It draws on fieldwork in a queer advocacy group and qualitative interviews with trans-, lesbian-, and women-identifying participants in Belgium to explore notions of age and ageism in queer...

This roundtable paper is part of the project 'Digitized Love and Intimacy on Hinge.' It aims to investigate how digital dating apps reconfigure cultural attitudes to love and intimacy and, conversely, how said attitudes influence digital dating practices. The conversation is informed by (n)ethnographic usage of the app. As algorithms and affordance...

This volume consists of narratives of migrant academics from the Global South within academia in the Global North. The autobiographic and autoethnographic contributions to this collection aim to decolonise the discourse around academic mobility by highlighting experiences of precarity, resilience, care and solidarity in the academic margins. The au...

This volume consists of narratives of migrant academics from the Global South within academia in the Global North. The autobiographic and autoethnographic contributions to this collection aim to decolonise the discourse around academic mobility by highlighting experiences of precarity, resilience, care and solidarity in the academic margins. The au...

This volume consists of narratives of migrant academics from the Global South within academia in the Global North. The autobiographic and autoethnographic contributions to this collection aim to decolonise the discourse around academic mobility by highlighting experiences of precarity, resilience, care and solidarity in the academic margins. The au...

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an influx of misinformation surrounding the virus and its origins. This paper examines the negative consequences of neoliberal self-care discourses related to COVID-19 that contributed to the disinfodemic, focusing on the wellness industry. Some health gurus and wellness instructors promoted lifestyle adjustments a...

Dual citizenship is not always an entirely privileged position. Some of the most privileged individuals capable of mobilizing fo rms of capital to acquire dual citizenships — whether through kinship, social and business networks, lottery, or outright purchase — find themselves barred from key forms of mobility and other rights and protections affor...

During the past two decades or so, the emergence and ever-accelerating development of digital media have sparked scholarly interest, debates, and complex challenges across many disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. Within this diverse scholarship, the research on digitality, gender, sexuality, and embodiment has contributed substan...

Gender, sexuality and embodiment in digital spheres have been increasingly studied from various critical perspectives: From research highlighting the articulation of intimacies, desires, and sexualities in and through digital spaces to theoretical explorations of materiality in the digital realm. With such a high level of (inter)disciplinarity, the...

The phenomenon of faking orgasms has been the subject of extensive feminist inquiry, but in contemporary Iran, where sex and sexuality remain sensitive and controversial topics, the topic has not received much scholarly attention. This exploratory pilot study uses qualitative methods to explore the prevalence and the reasons for faking orgasms amon...

The Iranian state is notorious for its heteronormativity and policing regime in online and offline spaces. The question of how queer Iranians 'survive' this inquisitive and intrusive regime of surveillance and control has attracted scholarly interest across disciplines. The existing studies complicate the picture and show that queer spaces, practic...

Women’s lower participation in male-dominated sports in Iran is perceived to be caused by religious and cultural forces. This article uses feminist scholarship to investigate whether belief in Islam plays a central role in forming women’s perceptions of sports participation and gender. Based on interviews with twenty-six women participants, the stu...

Phrases such as ‘muscle drain’ (Spiro 2012, 487) or ‘brawn drain’ (Adjaye 2010, 30) are sometimes used to refer to the migration of highly skilled sportspeople, often from the ‘Global South’ and ‘less developed’ countries to the ‘Global North’ or ‘highly developed’ countries. While elite sportspeople often have high international mobility, their mo...

In the contemporary legal system in Iran, child registration is closely tied to Islamicmarriage. The Civil Registration Law foresees a process for registering a child born to Islamicallymarried parents. This raises the question of what happens to children whose parents are not married.This paper uses literature review and content analysis methods a...

In Iran, motherhood continues to be considered an important and essential part of women's social life. However, non-motherhood is gaining momentum as Iranian women increasingly choose to be childfree. This study explores women's perceptions of motherhood using the content of a Persian-language discussion and mini-blogging forum called Ninisite. Nin...

The Islamic Republic of Iran is bound by the customary content of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Iran's constitution, however, equality rights apply only to Muslims. Also, the protection by law in the constitution is granted to the citizens of the Islamic Republic exclusively within the framework of the Twelver Shiite interpretation...

In dit essay heb ik vooral een onbeschroomde argumentatie willen ontwikkelen die ons kan helpen binationale huwelijken anders te interpreteren dan vanuit een antimigratiestandpunt. Om mijn punt te maken, ben ik ervan uitgegaan dat mensen ook kunnen trouwen om buitengewone redenen: buiten de ‘gebruikelijke’ reden voor een huwelijk, met name als basi...

In dit essay bespreek ik eerst de tekortkomingen van het hedendaagse geïndividualiseerde zelfzorgdiscours in drie secties: ‘Individualisering van verantwoordelijkheid’, ‘Het maskeren van ongelijkheden’ en ‘Het ondermijnen van sociale verandering’. Daarna vertrek ik vanuit feministische ideeën rond liefde, zorg en ‘solidariteit’, om uit te leggen wa...

[the order of the list of contributors is random; the contributions have been equal] In our round table discussion on vulnerabilities and responsibilities of migrant teens, we focused on adolescents with a migration background living in Belgium. Although many of the participants have experience in migration settings outside of Belgium, the strategi...

The Safavid society's approach to sexuality and gender has made it a reference for the "pre-modern" discourse, in which gender and sexuality manifest-in contemporary terminology-queerness and fluidity. While it is important not to romanticize the image of the Orient as a queer heaven, it is possible to consider Safavid society as an important site...

Women's lower participation in the male-dominated sports in Iran is perceived to be caused by religious and cultural forces. This article uses feminist scholarship to investigate whether belief in Islam plays a central role in forming women's perceptions of sports participation and gender. Based on interviews with twenty-six women participants, the...

Background Social support and social network members have been identified as an important factor in mitigating the effects of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and improving the coping process for many survivors. Network oriented strategies have been advocated for among domestic violence survivors, as they help build on improving social suppo...

Iran accepts temporary marriage to facilitate and sanctify sexual relationships. The concession of temporary marriage has, however, been the subject of controversy in the past four decades. One significant refutation of temporary marriage is related to its attempted usage in the case of child-adoption, sanctioned by both the state and some Shiʿi mu...

Western societies hold dearly to the romantic heterosexual model of marriage. This model, which is seemingly based upon 'love' also relies on perceptions of racialized, economic, and identitarian similarity of the people in the relationship. This article discusses a non-mainstream form of marriage as implicit political solidarity with or among migr...

This study is interested in the exploration of the sacralisation of everyday practices and objects, and marketization of the sacred in pilgrimage. Pilgrimage shrines are frequently attractions for vacationers engaged partly in ‘religious tourism’ or ‘pilgrimage tourism’ rather than in purely religious and spiritual journeys (Badone and Roseman 2010...

This special issue of JDSR has two goals. First, it aims to bring together innovative and newly developed theoretical, empirical, analytical, and critical approaches in the study of gender, sexuality, and embodiment in digital spheres. Second, by connecting intersectionality and digitality, we aim to adopt an integrated approach that reflects the i...

There is a general silence in research when it comes to the embodied experiences of older women. Older women are specially excluded from studies on beauty and embodiment because their age is perceived as a factor that makes their experience irrelevant. Older women also seldom occupy the position of the agentic subjects. This study explores older wo...

Religion can be a source of both pressure and empowerment for mothers. It is sometimes speculated that Muslims have more negative attitudes toward childlessness, as Islam values and encourages procreation. Islam also has associated Muslim women's social position with motherhood. Motherhood is frequently mentioned in connection to birth giving, brea...

This issue of Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies introduces some changes in the editorial team and in its publication format. As of September 2019, Ladan Rahbari and Tina Goethals have taken up the torch from Mieke Vandenbroucke as the new editors of DiGeSt. This editorial change was simultaneous to DiGeSt’s transition into an open access jou...

Editorial of DiGeSt issue 7.1

The hijab has been considered a notable factor in increasing women’s tendency to practise beauty in Iran. Experiences of beauty practices by Iranian women in diaspora can shed light on the extent of the influence that the practice of (un)veiling might have on beauty regimes. This study uses semi-structured interviews amongst a group of Iranian wome...

Women's position, identity, and value in Islam have been affected by androcentric interpretations of the Qur'an and hadith throughout Islamic history. Women's roles in society, as well as their position vis-à-vis Islamic sources and authority, have been shaped by these interpretations. In Shi'a Islam, due to the majority male clergy's resistance, w...

The aim of this special issue is to capture and interrogate the existing multiplicity of ways in which gender and sexuality are articulated together with nationalist, anti-immigration, and right-wing populist discourses in contemporary European socio-political landscapes. Therefore, we are particularly interested in contributions which analyze the...

In Islamic law, kinship is defined by consanguineal and affinal relationships. Birth and Islamic marriage are important events that define religious responsibilities of family members towards each other. Some responsibilities are connected to Mahramiyat, a framework of interpersonal relations that regulates marriages and interactions with the oppos...

Changing Surroundings and Gender: Gendered Experiences and Gender-Sensitive Support in Migration Contexts This special issue explores the interrelation between changing surroundings and gender in the context of migration. Gender influences mobilities and drives migration patterns, experiences and expectations. Gender-specific needs and assets may...

My entry to Belgium at the end of November 2015 went more straightforward than I expected. While visa processes for Iranian nationals are known to be excruciatingly long and hard-long and hard they were for me-my entry to the country went quite smoothly. As an academic with some experiences of international mobility, I had experienced lots of 'rand...

This study investigates juristic Shi’i guidelines as well as philosophical and legal perspectives on marriage in the Iranian contemporary context where specific interpretations of Twelver Shi’a are encoded in civil law. The study discusses three important factors that contribute to the legal and juristic complexity of Shi’i marriage: (i) length of...

The hijab has been the subject of public and academic debates that have polarized scholars, politicians, and activists. Opinions on veiling range widely: while some view veiling as an oppressive practice, others regard veiling as an expression of women's agency and empowerment. Solidarity practices, such as movements against compulsory veiling or a...

Introduction Social support and social network members have been identified as an important factor in mitigating the effects of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and improving the coping process for many survivors. Network oriented strategies have been advocated for among domestic violence survivors, as they help build on improving social sup...

The female body has been in the foreground of nation-building in Iran especially since the 1930s projects of modernization, when unveiling women and adaptation to Western clothing became a crucial factor of bolstering modern Iranian national identity as opposed to a religion-based national identity. After the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic dress code...

This article explores perceptions of Iranian academics of the relationship between women’s physical appearance and academic achievements. The research is conducted using interviews with academics working in different universities in the field of social sciences. Results included individual and structural explanations of the relationship between wom...

Introduction: In many Sub-Saharan African countries, women with infertility search relentlessly for treatment. Guided by the Partners for Applied Social Sciences model for health seeking behaviour and access to care research, this study aims to understand the health seeking behaviour of women with infertility in the West Coast region of The Gambia...

This dissertation aims to contribute to the critical studies on Harmful Cultural Practices (HCP). HCP is a humanitarian framework associated with the critique of cultural traditions that promote gender inequality, violating women’s right to health, life, dignity and personal integrity. The HCP framework is predominantly used to scrutinize women’s b...

This study investigates juristic Shi’i guidelines as well as philosophical and legal perspectives on marriage in the Iranian contemporary context where specific interpretations of Twelver Shi’a are encoded in civil law. The study discusses three important factors that contribute to the legal and juristic complexity of Shi’i marriage: (i) length of...

The Safavid dynasty ruled Persia between sixteenth and eighteenth centuries and is known as a turning period in the political, social and religious trajectories of Persian history. The ethnographic literature about the Safavid Persian culture written by Western travelers is an indication of the forming relations between the West and the Orient. The...

This paper explores the significance of motherhood as a social institution in Shiʻa Islam and illustrates the cultural imaginary, the experiences, perceptions, and ideals of motherhood in the Shiʻa narratives around Fatima-Zahra. The study interrogates the role of religious and cultural inventories on Fatima-Zahra's motherhood as discourses of iden...

The study is conducted based on a life story narrative of a Muslim migrant woman from Iran, now living in Belgium. Her life story and experiences prior to and after migration are analysed to reveal how she has built and made sense of her religiosity in the European context. Muslim migrants in Europe have faced challenges defining their identity and...

Background: There is an increasing awareness that infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa constitutes a severe social and public health problem. Few of the existing studies on infertility explicitly take into account the differences between women. However, how women experience infertility is formed by their various social positions. This research explore...

Introduction In the growing body of academic literature on gender, women and Islam, patriarchal and traditional interpretations of women's position in Islam are making place for an increased focus on the more agentic images and aspects of women's practices of religion or religiosity (Guta and Karolak, 2015; Joseph, 2006). This phenomenon reflects w...

This book provides interdisciplinary, global, and multi-religious perspectives on the relationship between women's identities, religion, and social change in the contemporary world. The book discusses the experiences and positions of women, and particular groups of women, to understand patterns of religiosity and religious change. It also addresses...

Although women’s independent migration is globally on the rise, female migrants are still prone to different forms of discrimination based on their gender, religion and skin colour. This paper is a qualitative study of female Iranian migrants living in Belgium. It is based on different methods used in anthropological inquiry, such as participant ob...

Although different forms of vaginal cleansing practices are common throughout the world, studies relating to Iranian women’s experiences are scarce. This study uses the life-story method to give a thick description of one Iranian woman’s experience of vaginal practices, and the role nurturing plays in shaping attitudes towards the female genitalia...

In this paper, drawing on notions, such as harmful cultural practices and beauty, and based on semi-structured interviews with young female university students in Iran, perceptions and experiences on beauty practices and cosmetic surgery are studied. We show how despite existing criticism of the gendered aspects of beauty practices among Iranian wo...

The “What are you reading?” section invites (early-career) researchers to report on works that are deemed relevant to the field and that are of particular significance to the author's ongoing research. This “What are you reading?” contains a discussion of a number of works that deal with the (late) nineteenth century, including Stephanie Shields' “...

This exploratory study investigated women’s perceptions of femininity among Mazandarani, Azeri and Kurdish female university students in Iran. The study was conducted using interviews with sixteen female university students. Analysis of interviews revealed that three main components predicted general understandings of the concept of femininity: per...

This study investigated Iranian female amateur riders’ experiences and perceptions of horse riding in a sport arena largely appropriated by men. I suggest that women’s participation in sport in Iran must be analyzed in the context of patriarchal culture in which gender is a defining factor in one’s experiences and success, while social class may al...

Iranian home is used as private, semi-private and public spaces. It has kept its traditional functions despite alterations in its structure and is a space for women to engage in caretaking and housekeeping activities. In this paper, I will discuss how modern architecture and its consequences such as the deletion of women-only spaces called Andaroon...

This article addresses women's contemporary position in academia in Iran. By systematically reviewing available academic and official databases on women’s positions in academia published online or in print, the question is raised if women's current position and role in academia is the result of personal choice making or an existent systematic discr...

Premarital relationships are legally banned and culturally rejected in Iran. A very low percentage of Iranian families with high incomes and educational levels hold liberal views about dating. However, almost half of Iranian teenagers start dating at high school. Since the beginning of the twenty‐first century, cultural changes, alterations in perc...

In Iranian society, sexuality is regulated by cultural restrictions, prohibitions, taboos, and indirect regulations due to the country's traditional and highly religious culture. Socialization processes are gendered as a consequence of there being different rules of sexual behavior for men and women. Sexual activity such as masturbation, erotic beh...

Half of Iran’s street children live in the country’s capital, Tehran. Street children spend the day and part of the night in the streets and engage in informal economic activities. They experience abuse, violence and psychological distress in public spaces. The street child issue in Iran is a transnational issue; according to official reports, up t...

Two groups of factors have contributed to the formation of Iranian associations and academic individuals’ status as peripheral in the international social science academic arena. First group consists of external factors such as prevailing euro centrism, English language hegemony and inevitable political-economic problems. Second group of factors ar...

The right to the city consists of the right to appropriate spaces and participate in processes therein. Appropriation is referred to having share of the space, using it, owning it and valuing it because it has use value. Participation in the city includes decision making, constructing and living in the urban space. Components of right to the city c...

Debate about the possibility of building a global sociology has gained increasing importance in recent years. In dialogue with works that argue in favor of post-national sociologies as well as literature that criticizes the hegemony of the theories formulated in the so-called centers, this articles aims on reflecting the idea of global sociology. T...

Lefebvre's right to the city is a radical rethinking of goals, definitions and contents of political units and the concept of participation has great importance in it. This project has used ladder of Arnestein as a conceptual construct to evaluate the different degrees of citizen participation and define their status in it and its relation to the i...

Debate about the possibility of building a global sociology has gained increasing importance in recent years. In dialogue with works that argue in favor of post-national sociologies as well as literature that criticizes the hegemony of the theories formulated in the so-called centers, this articles aims on reflecting the idea of global sociology. T...

Many young women in Iran experience sexual disturbance and molestation in urban public spaces, but they usually do not refer to police to report the abuse or ask for help willingly, even in critical cases like acute sexual attacks. This research was conducted among 47 young women sexually victimized in Tehran. Semistructured interviews were conduct...

The difference between death and Martyrdom in Iranian-Islamic culture is an irrefutable fact. Death is considered to be an inevitable fact while martyrdom is seen as a passage to the highest stages of human accomplishment. Devotion and self-sacrifice are key concepts for understanding the discourse of martyrdom in the Iranian culture. Although the...