Women, Martyrs and Stones in Iran’s Post-War Politics

Explores the haptic relations that connect the mothers and wives of the fallen soldiers of the Iran–Iraq war (1980–88) to their sons and husbands as martyrs

How would a switch from the inner to the outer, from the inwardness to the surface, from the habitus to the haptic alter our anthropological thinking about Islam? How do micro matters permeate the terrain of Shi?i women’s religious practice and Iran’s contemporary politics? Women, Martyrs and Stones in Iran's Post-War Politics explores the haptic relations that connect mothers and wives of the fallen soldiers of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) to their sons and husbands as martyrs. They have played a crucial role in the legitimation discourse of the Iranian state and transformed the very grounds on which religious nationalist and statist projects can be envisioned and practiced. Mourning mothers of martyrs covered in black veils have not only been integrated into a state-revering cult, but have incorporated their conduct into state’s apparatus. This book takes the reader on a journey from women’s dreamworld to their practices of intercession in cemeteries and former battlefields to show material and affective exposures in crafting relics.