Forging Identities: The Islamic Revolution and the Daughters of the Diaspora

Abstract

This master’s thesis aims to understand the ongoing legacy of the Islamic Revolution on the growing Iranian diaspora by focusing on the experiences of Iranian mothers and daughters in Michigan. In particular, I focus on how mothers and daughters together and differently face the pressure of forging new identities in diaspora. In part one, I provide the key research of this questions of this study and methodology, including how this work contributes to theories of diaspora. Next, I provide a brief history of the historical context of Iranian migration, attending in particular to the White Revolution of the Pahlavi era, the Islamic Revolution along with the establishment of the Islamic Republic, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis. After that, I provide a literature review of what already exists in this field of diaspora studies along with insights from the field of Iranian studies before diving into my findings. My findings section details what I discovered after conducting life history interviews with 10 Iranian mothers and daughters. I contend that the Islamic Revolution and experiences of living in the US have together shaped identity and strategies of survival for Iranian women living in this growing North American diaspora.