Conceiving citizens : women and the politics of motherhood in Iran

While Iranian women have most frequently been viewed through the politics of veiling, __Conceiving Citizens__ interprets modern Iranian politics and society through the history of women's health and sexuality. Drawing on archival documents and manuscript sources from Iran and elsewhere, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet illustrates how debates over hygiene, reproductive politics, and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries explained demographic trends and put women at the center of nationalist debates. Exploring women's lives under successive regimes, she chronicles the hygiene campaigns that cast mothers as custodians of a healthy civilization; debates over female education, employment, and political rights; government policies on contraception and population control; and tensions between religion and secularism. The Role Of Women In Iran Has Commonly Been Viewed Solely Through The Lens Of Religion, Symbolized By Veiled Females Subordinated By Society. In This Work, Firoozeh Kashani-sabet, An Iranian-american Historian, Aims To Explain How The Role Of Women Has Been Central To National Political Debates In Iran. Spanning The 19th And 20th Centuries, The Book Examines Issues Impacting Women's Lives Under Successive Regimes, Including Hygiene Campaigns That Cast Mothers As Custodians Of A Healthy Civilization; Debates Over Female Education, Employment, And Political Rights; Conflicts Between Religion And Secularism; The Politics Of Dress; And Government Policies On Contraception And Population Control. Among The Topics She Will Examine Are The Development Of A Women's Movement In Iran, Perhaps Most Publicly Expressed By Nobel Prize Winner Shirin Ebadi. The Narrative Comes Up To The Present, Looking At Reproductive Rights, The Spread Of Aids, And Fashion Since The Iranian Revolution. -- Publisher Description. Healing Iran: Hygiene And Social Change In The Qajar Era -- Population Politics: Epidemics And The Crisis Of Midwifery -- From Celibacy To Companionship: The Evolution Of Persian Marriages -- Sexual Mores, Social Lives: Maternalism And Venereal Disease -- Giving Birth: Modern Nursing And Reproductive Politics -- Schooling Mothers: Patriotic Education And Women's Renewal -- Defrocking The Nation: Unveiling And The Politics Of Dress -- From Mothers To Voters: Suffrage, Literacy, And Family Dynamics -- Managing Birth: Family Planning And Healthcare -- Civil Liberties, Civic Wombs: Women In The Islamic Republic. Firoozeh Kashani-sabet. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The role of women in Iran has commonly been viewed solely through the lens of religion, symbolized by veiled females subordinated by society. This book aims to explain how the role of women has been central to national political debates in Iran. Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, it examines issues impacting women's lives under successive regimes, including hygiene campaigns that cast mothers as custodians of a healthy civilization; debates over female education, employment, and political rights; conflicts between religion and secularism; the politics of dress; and government policies on birth control Conceiving Citizens places women and their role as mothers of the nation as central to the history of Iran during successive regimes in the 19th and 20th centuries.