What does mothering and grieving mean to those who mother not just on the margins but to those who are pressured, forced and/or assumed to speak and embrace the language of martyrdom in times of sorrow?
On March 10, during a CMES Research Seminar, Professor Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi (University of Oslo) explored this question in her talk Iran's Mothers of "Martyrs": Public Dissent in Times of Sorrow. She examined how Iranian mothers such as Nasrin Shakarami and Leily Mahdavi - whose children's deaths have become politically charged - use the term "martyr" to describe their loved ones. At the same time, she analyzed how the concept of martyrdom has been, and continues to be, instrumentalized by the state for political purposes.
Speaker Bio
Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi serves as the newly promoted Professor of Modern Iranian Studies in the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian, and Middle Eastern Studies (IKOS) at the University of Oslo. She is also an Associate Faculty-at-large at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research (BISR) in New York City. A feminist scholar and women's activist, she researches and publishes widely on contemporary women's movements, sexuality, and gendered public space in Iran and the modern Middle East.