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Mullahs, Martyrs, and Men

Conceptualizing Masculinity in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Southwest Missouri State University

A core component of the Islamic Revolution’s ideology was reformulation of gender discourse wrapped around an Islamic hypermasculinity. Attention has been focused on women’s roles and rights in the Islamic Republic, and men are assumed to universally have benefited from the regime’s policies. This hypermasculinity of the Republic has revised prerevolutionary ideals promoting new ideals of manhood. Mullahs are the sage interpreters of the Qur’an and Shari‘at. The young men who bide the dictates of the mullahs and sacrifice themselves for the Republic are martyrs. Then there are the ordinary men. The Shari‘at favors them at the family and civil society, but such a blanket vision ignores the costs paid by all men depending on their social class. High unemployment, inflation, oppression, and rampant drug abuse assail all men. They all pay for gender discrimination against all women in general and women of their social group in particular.

Key Words: Islamic revolution • hypermasculinity • martyrs • Shari‘at • mullahs • Ayatollah Khomeini • Iran

Men and Masculinities, Vol. 5, No. 3, 257-274 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1097184X02238526


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