Regulating Sexuality in Contemporary Iran: Red Lights in Parks
21 Feb 2014
Regulating Sexuality in Contemporary Iran: Red Lights in Parks
Presented by Dr. Batmanghelichi, PhD Columbia University, a candidate for UCIS Visiting Professor position. Soon after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the landmark Shahr-e No, a government-regulated brothel area in Tehran, was demolished and later developed by the Islamic Republic into a pristine, Islamic family-themed park called Park-e Razi. Details about the historic spatial and ideological transformations of this century-old red-light district are seldom known or analyzed in popular and academic discourses. In this lecture, Dr. Batmanghelichi traces the social realities of this leisure space over a forty year period, using both archival and ethnographic sources. This investigation is part of her larger study on bodily technologies employed by the Iranian state to regulate sexuality, in general, and prostitution, in particular, through the ideal rehabilitation of women, public space, and public memory.
- Log in to post comments