Gaze, objectification, and identity formation in life writings of Iranian women in diaspora

Abstract

The condition of permanent visibility that imposes on women the passive role of spectacle is often considered to be the state of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Most scholarly works on the status of women in contemporary Iran stereotypically perceive them as unresisting objects of institutional and voyeuristic gazes, and thus overlook the nuances of women’s participation within the prevailing dynamics of looking. This article explores the Iranian American writer Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) to shed light on women’s active engagement in challenging and dismantling the hierarchies of the gaze that primarily seek to objectify women’s body, identity, and subjectivity. Drawing on Jacque Lacan’s theory of the gaze, which emphasizes the link between the processes of observation and identity formation, the research demonstrates that despite being subjected to the objectifying gaze of the state and the voyeuristic scrutiny of the patriarchy, female characters ultimately succeed in temporarily reclaiming their position within the scopic field. It is argued that by assuming the role of spectators, the female characters reassert their agency and reconstruct a new sense of identity for themselves.