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An examination of temporary marriage, or sigheh, in Iran through the representation of women within modern novels, short stories and cinema.
List of contents
Prologue: sexpionage and the female body; Part I. General Overview: Introduction: body politics and sigheh marriages; 1. Sigheh marriages in modern Iran; Part II. Representation of Sigheh/Sex Work in the Literature of Pahlavi Era: 2. Gendered violence in Moshfeq-e Kazemi's Tehran-e Makhuf; 3. The volatile sigheh/sex workers' bodies in Jamalzadeh's Ma'sumeh Shirazi; 4. Colonized bodies in Al-e Ahmad's 'Jashn-e Farkhonde'; 5. The grotesque sigheh/sex workers' bodies in Golestan's 'Safar-e 'Esmat'; 6. Bodily inscriptions in Chubak's Sang-e Sabur; Part III. The Islamic Republic and Sigheh in Film Industry: 7. Whose body matters in Afkhami's Showkaran; 8. Embodiment, power, and politics in Farahbakhsh's Zendegi-ye Khosusi; Reclaiming the female body via writing.
About the author
Claudia Yaghoobi is Roshan Institute Assistant Professor in Persian Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of Subjectivity in 'Attar, Persian Sufism, and European Mysticism (2017), co-editor of Sex and Marriage in the Medieval Islamicate World: Women, Family, and Love (with Aisha Musa, forthcoming), co-editor of the book series, Sex, Marriage and Culture in the Middle East, and winner of the Hammed Shahidian Critical Feminist prize, awarded by the Iranian Women's Studies Foundation in 2014.
Summary
Analysing the representation of women in modern novels, short stories and cinema, this study is an examination of the controversial social institution of sigheh or temporary marriage in Iran, not just as an institution but also as a set of practices, identities and meanings that have transformed over the last two centuries.
