Gender and Dance in Modern Iran: Biopolitics on Stage investigates the ways dancing bodies have been providing evidence for competing representations of modernity, urbanism, and religiosity across the twentieth century. Focusing on the transformation of the staged dancing body, its space of performance, and spectatorial cultural ideology, this book traces the dancing body in multiple milieus of performance, including the Pahlavi era’s national artistic scene and the popular café and cabaret stages, as well as the commercial cinematic screen and the post-revolutionary Islamized theatrical stage. It links the socio-political discourses on performance with the staged public dancer, in order to interrogate the formation of dominant categories of "modern," "high," and "artistic," and the subsequent "othering" of cultural realms that were discursively peripheralized from the "national" stage. Through the study of archival and ethnographic research as well as a diverse literature pertaining to music, theater, cinema, and popular culture, it combines a close reading of primary sources such as official documents, press materials, and program notes with visual analysis of filmic materials and imageries, as well as interviews with practitioners. It offers an original and informed exploration into the ways performing bodies and their public have been associated with binary notions of vice and virtue, morality and immorality, commitment and degeneration, chastity and eroticism, and veiled-ness and nakedness. Engaging with a range of methodological and historiographical methods, including postcolonial, performance, and feminist studies, this book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Middle East history and Iranian studies, as well as gender studies and dance and performance studies.

This volume brings together scholarship from both established scholars and early career academics to provide fresh insights and new research on the cinema of Iran. The book is organised around eight broad themes including cinema before and after the revolution, stylistic innovation, documentary, gender, and genre. Encompassing a diverse range of methodological approaches and disciplinary frameworks including film studies, cultural studies, and political economy, each chapter is a self-contained study on a specific topic engaging with the national and transnational history of Iranian cinema which combined provide readers with original new insights into Iranian film and filmmakers, from fiction films to art house and popular cinema. The Handbook includes analysis of the works of established filmmakers such as Bahram Beyzaie, Rakhshan Banetemad, Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, as well as the output of emerging voices such as Ida Panahandeh and Shahram Mokri. Covering well-known topics as well as cutting edge ones such the sonic and visual manifestations of the urban environment in Iranian films, this book is a vital resource for understanding Iran and its unique cinematic culture.

Gender and Dance in Modern Iran: Biopolitics on Stage investigates the ways dancing bodies have been providing evidence for competing representations of modernity, urbanism, and religiosity across the twentieth century. Focusing on the transformation of the staged dancing body, its space of performance, and spectatorial cultural ideology, this book traces the dancing body in multiple milieus of performance, including the Pahlavi era s national artistic scene and the popular cafe and cabaret stages, as well as the commercial cinematic screen and the post-revolutionary Islamized theatrical stage. It links the socio-political discourses on performance with the staged public dancer, in order to interrogate the formation of dominant categories of "modern," "high," and "artistic," and the subsequent "othering" of cultural realms that were discursively peripheralized from the "national" stage. Through the study of archival and ethnographic research as well as a diverse literature pertaining to music, theater, cinema, and popular culture, it combines a close reading of primary sources such as official documents, press materials, and program notes with visual analysis of filmic materials and imageries, as well as interviews with practitioners. It offers an original and informed exploration into the ways performing bodies and their public have been associated with binary notions of vice and virtue, morality and immorality, commitment and degeneration, chastity and eroticism, and veiled-ness and nakedness. Engaging with a range of methodological and historiographical methods, including postcolonial, performance, and feminist studies, this book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Middle East history and Iranian studies, as well as gender studies and dance and performance studies. "

This book is an easy-to-read resource focusing on the interrelationship of religious traditions and particular cultural contexts, including the political economy. It demonstrates the connection between social structure, class, caste, gender, ethnicity, and religion. Basic issues that provide insight into the anthropological perspective on religion are discussed, leading into the topics of mythology and folklore, ritual, shamanism, sorcery and witchcraft, aboriginal religions, African religions, classical Old and New World religions, Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, and New Age religious trends. For anyone interested in an introduction to the religions of the world, and a glimpse into the future development of religion in the twenty-first century.

Arranged alphabetically by country and using a standard entry format for easy comparison, this volume provides an overview of each country's shared values, behaviors, and cultural variations.

Around the world, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have changed the lives of individuals, organizations, and, indeed, entire nations. ICTs can have profound implications for women and men in terms of employment, education, health, environmental sustainability, and community development. Because of systemic gender biases in ICTs and their applications, women are far more likely than men to experience discrimination in the new information society. In spite of this, resource-poor and non-literate women and their organizations are aware of the power of information technologies and communication processes, and are using them to advance their basic needs and strategic interests, improve their livelihoods, and help them achieve their human rights. Gender and ICTs for Development brings together case studies about women and their communities in developing countries and how they have been influenced by, and have used, ICTs in development. An introduction by Helen Hambly Odame, now at the University of Guelph in Canada, formerly with the International Service for National Agricultural Research, provides a global overview of the issues, and a framework for responding to the case studies. This book, the seventh of these Global Sourcebooks, features five major case studies which examine the diverse ways in which women have been able to make the most of digital opportunities: * e-commerce in Bhutan; * entrepreneurship by women workers in China; * post-conflict communication using radio and ICTs in Sierra Leone; * sustainable fisheries production in Ghana; and * information exchange related to HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. The extensive and up-to-date critical bibliography of print and online resources makes this a truly global sourcebook on the topic. Published in association with KIT Publishers.