In this episode of the Centre for War and Diplomacy’s podcast series, Dr Mateo Mohammad Farzeneh discusses the research behind his new book, Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War: Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East (Syracuse University Press, 2021), with Dr Maryam Ghorbankarimi. Dr Farzaneh examines the role of women in this conflict and highlights the integral place women have historically played in the arena of warfare and the need to continue research in this field. This podcast questions the phenomenon of war as male dominated by demonstrating that women have always been part of all wars throughout history.

“it is wonderful to see we can already look at the Iran-Iraq war through new lens without any bias and fully consider all those who contributed positively to the war efforts and acknowledge all the women involved”.

Dr Maryam Ghorbankarimi

Dr Farzaneh’s book assesses the divergent views Iranian women took in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, in which women of conservative religious backgrounds supported the conquering theocratic regime’s religiously-defined gender roles, while those who had been more active in civil society before the revolution pushed back against gender biases. Despite these ideological differences, both groups became important fixtures in the war efforts during the 1980s as first responders, surgeons, intelligence officers, journalists, and photographers. Dr Farzaneh, an Iranian native, is an associate professor of history at Northeastern Illinois University, specialising in the history of Iran, the modern Middle East, and Islamic civilisation. He is also the author of The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Clerical Leadership of Khurasani (Syracuse University Press, 2015).

Alongside Dr Farzaneh is Dr Maryam Ghorbankarimi a lecturer in film practice at Lancaster University. Dr Ghorbankarimi currently researches transnational cinemas and cultures, specifically the representation of gender and sexuality in Iranian cinema. Her edited volume on seminal Iranian female filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad, ReFocus: The Works of Rakhshan Banietemad was published in spring 2021 (Edinburgh University Press).