Female leadership in Iranian-Arab Shi'a rituals from Khorramshahr, South-western Iran

Abstract

Islamization of Iran over the centuries has caused the marginalization of women. After the Islamic revolution of 1979 andwith the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the position of women in society changed fast. Iranian women struggled to recover elements of their freedom, social roles, cultural rights, and artistic activities that had been encouraged and supported by the last Iranian monarchy, the Pahlavi Dynasty (1925-1979). While women's cultural activities in music and dramatic arts reduced, Iranian women from religious Shi'a families developed and expanded private cultural activities, among them several religious rituals, which are public to all women from their cities. Many of these rituals involve musical and theatrical elements. They are led by at least one female leader who guides the ritual attendees and performs the ceremony. While in some traditions, female leadership is assigned a completely political role, in many local cultures, this kind of leadership is predominantly related to artistic or religious activities. This chapter deals with the female leadership in local ritual traditions practiced by Iranian-Arab-Shi'a women from an ethnographic perspective. It explores how female leaders have or have not been able to adapt, sustain, and develop their practices. The main focus is on the women's rituals from Khorramshahr city in the south-western Iranian province of Khuzestan.