Identity, Language and Culture in Diaspora : A Study of Iranian Female Migrants to Australia

In a new sociocultural environment, migrant identities are constantly repositioned. Exploration of this experience aids understanding of the fluid and flexible nature of identity itself. In Identity, Language and Culture in Diaspora, Maryam Jamarani deals with ‘diasporic identities’ and advances a paradigm in which ‘becoming’, rather than ‘being’, is emphasised. Jamarani investigates changes in the identity of first generation Iranian Muslim women in Australia. Before migrating to Australia most of this group spent the first twenty years of their lives in the Westernoriented monarchy of Iran and then, after the 1978 Islamic Revolution, lived under the Islamic antiWestern government of the country. What effects have this distinctive experience had on the linguistic, cultural, national, gender and religious identity of individuals within this grouping? Jamarani aims to identify the core values that these women continue to hold after migration, as well as areas where their values have changed. Engaging with contemporary theories of acculturation, Jamarani proposes a novel, sociolinguistically enhanced acculturation model, emphasising the significance of the fluid and flexible nature of identity, which holds out the promise of shedding new light on the acculturation process of migrants in general. This book will be of interest to scholars around the world researching and teaching in the areas of identity, language, culture, gender and migration.