Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran: Interior Revolutions of the Modern Era

Since 1979 the focus on Iran's internal politics and its foreign relations has distracted attention from more subtle transformations, which took place prior to and in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution. This book explores Iranian domesticity and consumer culture from before the revolution to the present, re-examining the history of Iran's revolution through the lens of the everyday and private lives of people.A showcase for the West's humanitarian efforts in the region, the reform of the Iranian home was first brought about in early twentieth-century by missionaries, Western architects, and other foreign parties. By looking at the roles and opinions of Shiite religious scholars, the Left, and the revolutionary elites, this study details the ways in which new ideas regarding the relationship between public and private spaces were put forward by numerous architects, urban planners, and cultural critics, and shows how, since 1979, Iranians have contested the dichotomies of public and private as manifested in the Islamic Republic's texts, images, and actual physical spaces. Towards this end, this project explores the interplay between foreign influences, religious rhetoric, gender roles, economic factors, and education as they intersect with art and architecture.