Ethnic Religious Minorities in Iran

by S. Behnaz Hosseini (Editor)

Overview

This book explores the experiences of the ethnic and religious minorities of Iran, such as Jews, Yarsani, Christian, Sabean Mandaean, Bahai, Zoroastrian, Baluch, Kurd, and others and provides a historical overview of their position in society before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution and highlights their contribution to the country's history, diversity, and development. It also focuses on the historical, sociopolitical, and economic factors that affected the minorities' development during the last century. Author Behnaz Hosseini has shaped this book with authentic material and has assembled the experiences and opinions of academics of diverse backgrounds who approach the minorities’ issues in Iran in a constructive and ingenious way: from debating their efforts to preserve their identity and cultural heritage and ensure their survival to discussing their relations with the majority and other minorities, the role of religion in everyday life, and their contribution to the rich cultural history of Iran.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789811916359
Publisher:	Springer Nature Singapore
Publication date:	01/25/2023
Edition description:	1st ed. 2023
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

S. Behnaz Hosseini is a visiting research fellow at Centre for Studies in Religion & Society, University of Victoria in Canada as well as minority researcher, project coordinator, and conference organizer at the mobilecultures team affiliated with University of Vienna. She is an Honorary Fellow in the Center for Research on Gender and Women at the University of Wisconsin College. She is also a Middle East media analyst with Persian media. Dr. Hosseini has conducted extensive research on minorities in the Middle East and has worked with the United Nations as an expert consultant on ISIS crimes against religious minorities in Iraq.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Iran: An Introduction.- Chapter 2. Iranian Constitution Under Pro-Center Dogmatic Authoritarianism and Pro-Persian Cosmopolitanism, and Its Impacts on Ethno-sectarian and Ethno-linguistic Minorities.- Chapter 3. Sectarianism and National Cohesion Sunni Political Activism in Iran.- Chapter 4. The Role of Asheqs in Maintaining and Promoting the Culture of Khorasan’s Kurds.- Chapter 5. Porkhani and Ishani: Women Healers in the Turkmen Community in Iran.- Chapter 6. Iranian Jews’ Tendency to Religious Visibility and Adapted Coexistence.- Chapter 7. Demographic Aspects of Iranian Immigrants’ Integration in Israel.- Chapter 8. An Islamized Mandaeism: Examining the Impacts of Shia Muslims on the Religionism of the Iranian Mandaeans.- Chapter 9. The Contemporary Collective Identity of Zoroastrians in Tehran: Between the Strategies of Dichotomization and Complementarization.- Chapter 10. Sociological Analysis of Social Trust in the Zoroastrian Community in Tehran.- Chapter 11. Transformation and Appropriation of Religion: A Case of Yārsāni Community in Iran./

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This collected volume is an attempt to create an overview of Iran’s main religious and ethno-religious minorities in their relationship to the dominant political discourse. The diversity of the topics, the international and academic backgrounds of the authors as well as their contemporary orientation distinguishes this volume as an original one.” (Behrouz Alikhani, Senior Lecturer, WWU Münster, Institute of Sociology, Germany)

“Iran is often understood as a homogenous nation-state. A closer look at the Iranian society – in Iran and beyond – allows for a better understanding. The volume of Behnaz gives insights into an overlooked aspect of Iranian society, insights not available before. The student of Iran may have heard about nomads, Kurds, Zoroastrians, Armenians, sometimes about Jews or other minorities but never had access to such a specter of information about Iranian minorities. Especially, since most of the contributions are not written by foreign experts but byIranian researchers, this volume will be a milestone for further research on Iranian minorities. The volume edited by Behnaz is an indispensable handbook for researchers.” (Rüdiger Lohlker, Professor at Institute for Oriental Studies, Faculty of Philology and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, Austria)