Gay Life Stories, 1st ed. 2019 Same-Sex Desires in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Drawing on ethnographic encounters with self-identified gay men in Iran, this book explores the construction, enactment, and veiling and unveiling of gay identity and same-sex desire in the capital city of Tehran. The research draws on diverse interpretive, historical, online and empirical sources in order to present critical and nuanced insights into the politics of recognition and representation and the constitution of same-sex desire under the specific conditions of Iranian modernity. As it engages with accounts of the persecuted Iranian gay male subject as a victim of the barbarism of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the book addresses interpretive questions of sexuality governance in transnational contexts and attends to issues of human rights frameworks in weighing social justice and political claims made by and on behalf of sexual and gender minorities. The book thus combines empirical data with a critical consideration of the politics of same-sex desire for Iranian gay men.

Jón Ingvar Kjaran is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Iceland and a senior researcher at the UNU GEST (United Nations University Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme).

Presents ethnographic narrative in concert with theories of space, sexuality, sexuality governance, and victimhood

Provides critical and nuanced insights into the politics of recognition and representation in Iranian modernity

Relevant for researchers in anthropology, sociology, gender studies, sexuality studies, Middle East studies, and international relations