Identity and Politics in Iran

This is a guide to the social and cultural history of 20th-century Iran, which since 1925 has told its citizens how to dress, what music to listen to, how to exercise, and how to mourn its Shi'ite martyr-icons. In its drive towards "modernization", Iran under its two Pahlavi Shahs stripped women of the tradition of veiling, banned men's traditional headgear, rejected traditional music in favour of quasi-western orchestration and crooning, co-opted traditional sport into an instrument for state propaganda, and tried to destroy the traditions of martyrdom mourning. However, as is described in this account, since the Islamic revolution, dress, sports, music and mourning rituals have again become instruments of state policy, this time in the direction of de-westernization. Women are again veiled, the tie has more or less disappeared from around men's necks, popular music is banned, and sport is strictly segregated by sex, with young women virtually excluded. Meanwhile the tradition of martyrdom mourning during Muharram has returned with a vengeance.