Older Iranian Muslim women’s experiences of sex and sexuality: A biographical approach

TY - JOUR

T1 - Older Iranian Muslim women’s experiences of sex and sexuality

T2 - A biographical approach

AU - Amini, Elham

AU - McCormack, Mark

PY - 2021/3/1

Y1 - 2021/3/1

N2 - Muslim women in Iran live in a patriarchal society which significantly restricts their freedom and agency. While there is a growing understanding of social change as it relates to younger Muslim women in Iran, the perspectives and experiences of older women are marginalized; mirroring problems with the intersections of age, gender and sexuality in the West. In order to address this occlusion, this article draws on life history interviews with 30 older Muslim women living in Tehran and Karaj. Adopting a biographical life course approach, and examining pivotal moments related to sexuality in their lives, we discuss how cultural meanings and symbols of sexuality have emerged and been negotiated by these women at the life stages of puberty, first sex at marriage, and menopause. The patriarchal and religious gender order of Iran transgresses these women’s human rights so that sexuality is experienced as a source of shame, stigma and pollution, yet the women also exert forms of agency in their lives as they adopt and challenge these norms.

AB - Muslim women in Iran live in a patriarchal society which significantly restricts their freedom and agency. While there is a growing understanding of social change as it relates to younger Muslim women in Iran, the perspectives and experiences of older women are marginalized; mirroring problems with the intersections of age, gender and sexuality in the West. In order to address this occlusion, this article draws on life history interviews with 30 older Muslim women living in Tehran and Karaj. Adopting a biographical life course approach, and examining pivotal moments related to sexuality in their lives, we discuss how cultural meanings and symbols of sexuality have emerged and been negotiated by these women at the life stages of puberty, first sex at marriage, and menopause. The patriarchal and religious gender order of Iran transgresses these women’s human rights so that sexuality is experienced as a source of shame, stigma and pollution, yet the women also exert forms of agency in their lives as they adopt and challenge these norms.

KW - aging

KW - gender

KW - Iran

KW - sexuality

KW - shame

KW - stigma

KW - women

U2 - 10.1111/1468-4446.12805

DO - 10.1111/1468-4446.12805

M3 - Article

SN - 0007-1315

VL - 72

SP - 300

EP - 314

JO - The British Journal of Sociology

JF - The British Journal of Sociology

IS - 2

ER -