Women, Martyrs and Stones in Iran’s Post-War Politics

This book is a welcome addition to the body of scholarly work that help us understand Muslim practices in daily life and that tune into the sensory and material aspects of religious devotion. The author pays meticulous attention to relations between women’s circles and the aims of state institutions in defining acceptable practice.

This book opens up new and productive ways to understand the relations between Islamic praxis/piety and their environments in Iran. Chavoshian manages this challenging task with guile and sophistication. It almost seems as though two voices are harmoniously at play. One has a deep level of expertise in classical sociology, anthropology and Islamic Studies while the other is fluid in the most recent approaches emerging from the human sciences, including sensory ethnography. This is a rare combination that delivers a dynamic and original text.

Chavoshian investigates the roles women in Iran have played over the last century in religious practices, veiling, and the mourning of soldiers killed in the war with Iraq. The author focuses in particular on haptic events—i.e., events that involve physical touch. These include Iranian women who were widowed by the war with Iraq and traveled to the fields in southeastern Iran where their husbands, sons, or fathers were killed in battle. [...] The book also examines the role of pious circles (jalaseh), in which women meet, sometimes in secret, to practice their religion.

Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.