Homa Hoodfar’s research while affiliated with Concordia University and other places

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Publications (18)


Irã: políticas islâmicas e mulheres em busca de igualdade
  • Article

June 2019

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13 Reads

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1 Citation

Mandrágora

Homa Hoodfar

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Shadi Sadr

No Irã, a fusão de um Estado forte com leis e instituições religiosas após a revolução iraniana de 1979, gerou uma estrutura estatal dual. As instâncias não eleitas exercem ali o controle sobre os órgãos eleitos e, na maioria das vezes, não aceitam o primado da democracia nem tampouco o princípio de igualdade entre os sexos (ou entre muçulmanos e não muçulmanos). A questão central que se coloca aqui é a de saber se um Estado religioso é capaz de se adequar a tais normas. O exame das políticas implementadas mostra que, no caso do Irã e do xiismo, o principal obstáculo deve-se mais às relações não democráticas entre Estado e Sociedade do que à compatibilidade (ou falta de) real ou potencial das tradições e práticas religiosas com os princípios democráticos.


Porter son identité à l’ère de la mondialisation: Politiques du voile et de la mode en contextes musulman et occidental

May 2018

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112 Reads

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3 Citations

Anthropologie et Sociétés

En dépit de nombreuses recherches et d’un nombre considérable de publications qui traitent de la complexité de la question du voile musulman et de sa versatilité, en Occident, le discours public et les interventions étatiques qui ont visé à l’interdire continuent pour une large part d’associer le port du voile aux représentations remontant à l’époque coloniale qui en faisaient un outil d’oppression et d’asservissement. Le sous-texte qui accompagne ce phénomène est que la visibilité corporelle des femmes dans les modes occidentales « modernes » constitue une étape nécessaire de l’émancipation des femmes des liens du patriarcat, afin qu’elles puissent affirmer leur agentivité. D’une manière quelque peu similaire, les islamistes politiques, qu’ils occupent des fonctions officielles ou qu’ils soient des acteurs non étatiques, tiennent à l’idée que le voile est un instrument essentiel de la préservation de la culture et de l’identité musulmanes, et que sa seule présence représente une contestation de l’impérialisme culturel. Considérant que les interventions étatiques, tant en contextes musulmans qu’occidentaux, ont rouvert les débats entourant l’habillement des femmes musulmanes, cet article, en passant en revue un certain nombre de discours et de publications, cherche à approfondir deux questions essentielles : 1) la perception du public occidental, qui associe le port du voile à l’oppression et qui méconnaît, et par conséquent nie, l’agentivité des musulmanes ; et 2) le rôle que joue le vêtement, en tant qu’institution politique en contextes nationalistes musulmans et non musulmans, dans l’inclusion ou l’exclusion des membres du corps civique. En examinant certaines modes alternatives qui se développent en Iran, en Turquie, en Europe et en Amérique du Nord, cet article souligne les diverses façons par lesquelles les femmes ont utilisé et remodelé le voile et les styles vestimentaires musulmans pour gagner du terrain et étendre leur sphère de pouvoir tout en résistant aux institutions patriarcales au sein des espaces musulmans ou laïcs, voire en les subvertissant. De fait, au moyen de la mode et du vêtement, les femmes élargissent leur rôle public tout en élaborant de nouvelles formes de féminité. Ce faisant, elles affirment leur agentivité, tout ayant accès à de nouvelles opportunités. Cet article suggère que le souci de réglementer l’habillement des femmes et les codes vestimentaires, à la fois en contextes musulmans et laïcs, provient du désir de présenter une démocratie unifiée plutôt que pluraliste, et une identité nationale qui se traduit souvent par des pratiques d’exclusion.


Iran : politiques islamiques et femmes en quête d'égalité

February 2012

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21 Reads

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1 Citation

Cahiers du Genre

Islamic Politics and Women’s Quest for Gender Equality in Iran The unification of a strong and authoritarian state with religious laws and institutions after the 1979 revolution in Iran has resulted in the creation of a dualistic state structure in which non-elected and non-accountable state authorities and institutions — the majority of whom have not accepted either the primacy of democracy nor the premise of equality between men and women (or Muslims and non-Muslims) — are able to oversee the elected authorities and institutions. The central question posed by this paper is whether a religious state would be capable of democratising society and delivering gender equality. By analysing the regime’s gender policies and political development, the paper suggests that at least in the case of Iran and Shi’ism, the larger obstacle to gender (and minorities’) equality has more to do with the undemocratic state-society relations that persist in Iran and less to do with the actual or potential compatibility (or lack thereof) of religious traditions or practices with democratic principles.


Islamic Politics and Women's Quest for Gender Equality in Iran

September 2010

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269 Reads

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54 Citations

The unification of a strong and authoritarian state with religious laws and institutions after the 1979 revolution in Iran has resulted in the creation of a dualistic state structure in which non-elected and non-accountable state authorities and institutions-the majority of whom have not accepted either the primacy of democracy nor the premise of equality between men and women (or Muslims and non-Muslims)-are able to oversee the elected authorities and institutions. The central question posed by this paper is whether a religious state would be capable of democratising society and delivering gender equality. By analysing the regime's gender policies and political development, the paper suggests that, at least in the case of Iran and Shi'ism, the larger obstacle to gender (and minorities') equality has more to do with the undemocratic state-society relations that persist in Iran and less to do with the actual or potential compatibility (or lack thereof) of religious traditions or practices with democratic principles.


Health as a Context for Social and Gender Activism: Female Volunteer Health Workers in Iran

September 2010

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70 Reads

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16 Citations

Population and Development Review

Having reversed its pronatalist policies in 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran implemented one of the most successful family planning programs in the developing world. This achievement, particularly in urban centers, is largely attributable to a large women-led volunteer health worker program for low-income urban neighborhoods. Research in three cities demonstrates that this successful program has had a host of unintended consequences. In a context where citizen mobilization and activism are highly restricted, volunteers have seized this new state-sanctioned space and successfully negotiated many of the familial, cultural, and state restrictions on women. They have expanded their mandate from one focused on health activism into one of social, if not political, activism, highlighting the ways in which citizens blur the boundaries of state and civil society under restrictive political systems prevalent in many of the Middle Eastern societies.





Women, religion and the 'Afghan Education Movement' in Iran

February 2007

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356 Reads

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42 Citations

Ongoing resistance to gender equality in Muslim societies, despite considerable industrialisation and development in many of them, has supported the assumption that Islam, itself, poses a formidable barrier to gender equality. In recent years, the treatment of Afghan women by the Taliban has only reinforced that assumption. However, it happens that certain social transformations have taken place in some Muslim societies, sometimes in unlikely corners, which deserve our close attention. There are lessons that we can draw from them regarding strategies for the further promotion of gender equity and women's empowerment. This paper reviews the experience of Afghan refugee women whose exposure to different visions of Islam in the Islamic Republic of Iran led them to embrace a different vision of Islam and 'Muslim-ness'. The internalisation of this new Islamic understanding empowered Afghan women, first, to envisage a different and transformed Afghan community. This vision led to the creation of an educational movement in which tens of thousands of Afghan boys and girls - but also adults - were educated without external financial or institutional support. It is a process very different from previous Afghan governments' top-down educational policies, or transplanted international agencies' programs, or other elite-based movements. A vibrant civil society has been created and the women, themselves, have changed. This educational movement transformed gender roles in ways that few social scientists or policy makers could foresee. Significantly, new configurations of various levels of empowerment at personal, community and transnational levels have arisen. Analysis of this case suggests that perhaps development practitioners and policy makers need to re-examine the potential for Muslim women, using their indigenous resources, to challenge their exclusion from the power structure of their communities and to transform their cultures and societies. Given the experience of once rightless, disempowered Afghan refugee women, why should we assume that, given the right circumstances, other Muslim women could not internalise a more egalitarian vision of Islam empowering them to take charge of their own lives and embarking on a process of societal development?


Zasłona w ich umysłach i na naszych głowach: muzułmanki i praktyki zasłaniania

January 2007

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70 Reads

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7 Citations

An anthology of 11 texts by foreign authors, both classic and new, written for this collection, gathered in three parts: "Family and kinship", "Gender and the nation, state and tribal organization", "Gender in the postcolonial world". The book contains both theoretical articles and texts analyzing the results of ethnographic field research in various parts of the world.


Citations (14)


... According to representatives of gender studies, it is particularly harmful to distinguish between the spheres of domestic and public life in different cultures, as well as to rigidly model the desirable roles that women and men have to play in each of these spheres. In this way, people are deprived of their right to decide their own lives and fates completely freely (see, for example, Goddard, 2007;Llewelyn-Davies, 2007;Hoodfar, 2007;Channa, 2007;Brenner, 2007;Okley, 2007). ...

Reference:

Assessment of the Rationality of Gender Studies from the Perspective of Bocheński’s Concept of Philosophical Superstition
Zasłona w ich umysłach i na naszych głowach: muzułmanki i praktyki zasłaniania
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 2007

... The term 'hijab' refers to cover the head only while 'niqab' is associated with covering both the head and the fac. 4 Veil applies to a type of cloth that covers up the body from head to ankle without concealing the face, hands and feet. 5 Islamic clothing varies greatly between countries and comes in a variety of styles; some Muslim females cover their heads while their faces are exposed and this type of clothing is called Hijab and 'Niqab' is a word for a piece of clothing that completely covers one's body and face while only their eyes are uncovered. 6 Veiling may ensure the Muslim family members that the individual is adhering to Islamic principles while following modern educational and career goals that would otherwise be unacceptable without wearing the veil. ...

The Veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: Veiling Practices and Muslim Women
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 2001

... The Islamic Republic of Iran has been hosting Afghan refugees since the 1980s [14]. In July 2017, it was reported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that more than 950,000 Afghan refugees were residing Iran [15]. ...

The long road home: Adolescent Afghan refugees in Iran contemplate 'return'
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 2008

... This is also a finding reproduced in studies on street children in other countries (see Hanson & Nieuwenhuys, 2013). It can also be concluded that Afghan refugee experiences are not isolated experiences and most of the refugees living in different parts of the world live in more or less the same conditions and face similar kinds of attitudes from, and treatment by, their various host societies (see Hoodfar, 2010;Mann, 2012). ...

Refusing the margins: Afghan refugee youth in Iran
  • Citing Article
  • January 2010

... In Egypt, the transition to adulthood for women occurs at family formation (Assaad & Krafft, 2020;Gebel & Heyne, 2014). Marriage is mainly seen as a precondition for leaving the parent's house and childbearing (Hoodfar, 1997). However, the rising costs of marriage have resulted in a delay in marriage in urban areas. ...

The Impact of Male Migration on Domestic Budgeting: Egyptian Women Striving for an Islamic Budgeting Pattern
  • Citing Article
  • June 1997

Journal of Comparative Family Studies

... Nie rozumiem tego, on by chciał, żebym nie marnował życia, żebym się bawił, jak można, przecież sam powiedział, że Dorota jest fajną dziewczyną i to dobrze, że właśnie ona jest ze mną" 18 . Swoistym doświadczeniem kulturowym związanym z przeżywaniem żałoby jest kwestia dyskryminacji (Fischer & Holz, 2010;Hoodfar, 1992;Lips, 2016;Moradi & DeBlaere, 2010): "Cały czas słyszę z jednej strony o równouprawnieniu z drugiej o dyskryminacji a dopiero po śmierci Karola odczułam na sobie tak naprawdę dyskryminację. Nie chodzi tutaj o to co słychać, że kobiety są dyskryminowane w pracy itp. ...

Feminist Anthropology and Critical Pedagogy: The Anthropology of Classrooms’ Excluded Voices
  • Citing Article
  • July 1992

Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l éducation

... Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed the health status of IDPs during the 1993-1994 civil war in Burundi but did not check the mental health of healthy refugees (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1994). "Families on the move" were studied during the Afghanistan refugee crisis, but this research was concentrated only on women and female-specific problems (Hoodfar, 2004). While not precisely at-the-moment research, Syrian and Iraqi refugees were checked for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within the first month following their arrival in the United States (Javanbakht et al., 2022). ...

Families on the Move: The Changing Role of Afghan Refugee Women in Iran
  • Citing Article
  • June 2004

Hawwa

... This is based on the fact that Islamic education is a field of study that learn Islam comprehensively. Thu, the effort to control the interpretation of meaning in Islamic education is a ticket to occupy the seat of authority over the self-claim true meaning of Islam (Hoodfar, 1996;Moghadam, 2001;Moghissi, 1999). ...

Bargaining with fundamentalism: Women and the politics of population control in Iran
  • Citing Article
  • November 1996

Reproductive Health Matters

... Therefore, the implementation of the health volunteer program in Iranian cities and villages is not only a means to achieve health goals but also the basis for achieving continuous and sustainable development in society. [15] Health volunteers also play a significant role in educating citizens and preventing diseases in the community and their capacity can be used to raise health indicators and provide quality services to the citizens. [16] This study was conducted by identifying the challenges, determining and implementing strategies to increase the participation of health volunteers and the effectiveness of their activities in health education programs. ...

Health as a Context for Social and Gender Activism: Female Volunteer Health Workers in Iran
  • Citing Article
  • September 2010

Population and Development Review

... Besides these implicit forms of activism, explicit activism against VAW has been part of the Iranian women's movement's agenda but has remained somewhat unorganized. Operating primarily in a decentralized fashion, the Iranian women's movement has attempted to make itself less susceptible to targeted attacks and suppression [19]. VAW is still a highly sensitive and over-politicized topic. ...

Against All Odds: The women's movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran
  • Citing Article
  • June 2009

Development