Warring Souls: Youth, Media, and Martyrdom in Post-Revolution Iran

by Roxanne Varzi

With the first Fulbright grant for research in Iran to be awarded since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Roxanne Varzi returned to the country her family left before the Iran-Iraq war. Drawing on ethnographic research she conducted in Tehran between 1991 and 2000, she provides an eloquent account of the beliefs and experiences of young, middle-class, urban Iranians. As the first generation to have come of age entirely in the period since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran, twenty-something Iranians comprise a vital index of the success of the nation’s Islamic Revolution. Varzi describes how, since 1979, the Iranian state has attempted to produce and enforce an Islamic public sphere by governing behavior and by manipulating images—particularly images related to religious martyrdom and the bloody war with Iraq during the 1980s—through films, murals, and television shows. Yet many of the young Iranians Varzi studied quietly resist the government’s conflation of religious faith and political identity. Highlighting trends that belie the government’s claim that Islamic values have taken hold—including rising rates of suicide, drug use, and sex outside of marriage—Varzi argues that by concentrating on images and the performance of proper behavior, the government’s campaign to produce model Islamic citizens has affected only the appearance of religious orthodoxy, and that the strictly religious public sphere is partly a mirage masking a profound crisis of faith among many Iranians. Warring Souls is a powerful account of contemporary Iran made more vivid by Varzi’s inclusion of excerpts from the diaries she maintained during her research and from journal entries written by Iranian university students with whom she formed a study group.

Genres: Iran, Anthropology, History, Nonfiction, Middle East, Politics

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2006

Reviews

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best ethnography I've read in a long time. I'd recommend it to anyone (nope, you don't have to be an anthropologist!) who enjoys fine writing and fine thinking, and would like to know a bit more about Iran than what gets filtered to us through the American media.

[Johnny G]

Roxanne is a friend of mine. I met her in a local coffee shop when she was doing the earliest research for this book. I saw her read from the book this summer, and she was totally engaging.

[Azul60]

During an interview with Sandip Roy she said that materialism had become a strong force among Iranian youth. She said that they are an adopting a mentality similar to that of the Japanese youth who have a "lack of respect for daily life" and are instead focused on the acquisition of "things" (Luis Vuitton bags and the like) and the consumer culture. She said that this change is happening with a great speed and intensity. There is an attendant devaluation of things like art and aesthetic enjoyment and other more mundane pleasures.

She and Sandip Roy said that this cultural shift would make another revolution highly unlikely because a revolution requires a very different sort of idealism. The focus on material things would tend to make them disengaged from the political struggle and unwilling to risk hardship.

[pol.llopart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read. The first four chapters are engaging and exciting: the role of images during the 1979 revolution, the meaning of death and martyrdom, etc. That combined with film theory and classical Persian poems (deserving a 4). Latter chapters are dry, losing the focus a bit.

It is a shame that relevant theoretical remarks fall into the endnotes! Moreover, I am also not convinced of the usage of fiction in ethnographic monographs.

It would be interesting to see another book 20 years after, accounting the green movement, sanctions, nuclear deal, 2019-20 protests, etc.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have only read the intro so far, but it is a poetic and proud representation of what anthropology can be, so I'm excited to read it in a genre sense as well as the obvious importance of what it will teach me given the situation in Iran. I expect it will provide me with more reassurance that the people in Iran won't resort to violence and won't stop protesting or planning for democracy. DO NOT STOP.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another variation on the "modern but traditional" theme, also "extramarital sex is revolutionary," except you should take "revolution" in this context to mean "the return of Iranian markets, labor, and resources to Western control." Give it a pass unless it's on one of your syllabi, in which case, sorry can't help ya!

[melliroo · Rating 1 out of 5]

don't be fooled...seems like it will be super, but ends up being dry. also feel like her use of fiction as an anthropological tool falls flat.

[Samin Rb · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a combination of long quotes, not a contribution, I got more disappointed when I learned it was Ph.D. thesis.

[Zamaniya Bankole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mix of literary journalism and some fiction pieces, poetry, mythology, etc. It's a lot - sometimes her analyses are a little long/intense but realistically, I think Roxanne Varzi did a great job trying to illuminate the more elusive cultural underpinnings of Iranian youth culture, the effects of a cultural legacy, war, economic malaise, and how these youth connect to a wider world. I'd recommend as a supplement to the understanding of contemporary Persian youth culture.