Wrestling Women’s Rights in Iran: Contesting Gender and Sexuality (B)orders in Sports Fields

Abstract

Titled Wrestling Women’s Rights in Iran: Contesting Gender and Sexuality (B)orders in SportsFields, this dissertation explores how women athletes in Iran challenge the sociopolitical borders of heteronormative dichotomy of femininity and masculinity by pushing back the patriarchal policies of gender order and sexual taboos. In order to discuss the gendered discourse of sports in which Iranian sportswomen practice, I reflect upon my experiences, observations, and data developed during ten years of tracing women’s sports news and rumors in Persian media and social media. The ten years of data gathering include: participatory fieldwork in international competitions spaces including conversations with Iranian athletes and fans, interactions with Iranian journalists and women’s rights activists. I examine the institutional sports regulations and statements contextualized in the theocratic state policies to introduce the concept of “vitrine politics of women’s sports.” I argue that this concept explains the complex and at times contradictory status and roles women athletes have in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This dissertation offers a unique window into the struggles Iranian women athletes have and their determination in defining their desired identities, expanding their social roles, and uniting with the broader population of Iranian women. The women athletes do so through their resistance and protests at national and international levels.