With more than half its population under twenty years old, Iran
is one of the world's most youthful nations. The Iranian state
characterizes its youth population in two ways: as a homogeneous
mass, "an army of twenty millions" devoted to the Revolution, and
as alienated, inauthentic, Westernized consumers who constitute a
threat to the society. Much of the focus of the Islamic regime has
been on ways to protect Iranian young people from moral hazards and
to prevent them from providing a gateway for cultural invasion from
the West. Iranian authorities express their anxieties through
campaigns that target the young generation and its lifestyle and
have led to the criminalization of many of the behaviors that make
up youth culture.In this ethnography of contemporary youth culture
in Iran's capital, Shahram Khosravi examines how young Tehranis
struggle for identity in the battle over the right to
self-expression. Khosravi looks closely at the strictures
confronting Iranian youth and the ways transnational cultural
influences penetrate and flourish. Focusing on gathering places
such as shopping centers and coffee shops, Khosravi examines the
practices of everyday life through which young Tehranis demonstrate
defiance against the official culture and parental dominance. In
addition to being sites of opposition, Khosravi argues, these
alternative spaces serve as creative centers for expression and,
above all, imagination. His analysis reveals the transformative
power these spaces have and how they enable young Iranians to
develop their own culture as well as individual and generational
identities. The text is enriched by examples from literature and
cinema and by livid reports from the author's fieldwork.
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