Constituting more than one-third of the country’s population, young generation in Iran are also a subnational group who have their own unique experiences of living in Iran and distinct way of defining themselves as Iranian. This has given rise to Iranian youth’s identity politics, evinced by nationwide student-led uprisings and social movements throughout the past decade. Identity politics in this sense is specified as the ways in which the young Iranians reflect on their everyday experiences in order to make sense of their belongingness to the nation. The aim of this study, however, is to elucidate the ambiguities surrounding the youth’s identities through conducting a series of focus group discussions with the most mature segment of this age group who were selected from middle-class residents of Tehran. The findings ultimately unravelled cosmopolitan aspirations, self-reproach and some other identity-making aspects of these young people’s lives.

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Although the resurgence of race and religiosity among Iranians predates the past millennium, it was not until beginning of twentieth century that both religion and race entered the public discourse, gradually becoming the key constituents of Iranian identity. The emergence of the non-conformist young generation in early 1990s, however, raises important questions about the critical role of race and religion in shaping Iranian youth’s identities. With a specific attention to the most mature (25-29 years old) segment of the middle-class residents of Tehran, and through conducting a series of focus groups, this study explores how these individuals imagine their selves vis-à-vis the others in relation to race and religion. The findings ultimately point to the participants’ oscillation between tolerance and exclusionism towards other races and religions as a way to disentangle the complexities of their identities.

The emergence and rapid proliferation of the predominantly anti-regime Farsi satellite TV channels (FSTCs) and their productions since early 1990s have not only transformed the Iranian mediascape, but also challenged the state’s definition of Iranianness. Among the new generations of these free-to-air transnational channels, is MANOTO, a London-based television network which became a familiar name among Iranians since 2010 after premiering Befarmaeed Sham, a cooking game show copied from the successful British TV show Come and Dine with Me. Being broadcast for more than a decade, this reality show depicts the lives of ordinary Iranians in diaspora who have to deal with the unaccustomed culture of the West. Since FSTCs are strictly regarded by Iranian authorities as means of cultural invasion, the representations in Befarmaeed Sham are naturally seen to be in contrast with the Islamic regime’s views on what it means to be Iranian. Yet, what remains less known is how this new form of popular cultural programme redefines Iranianness. Therefore, by performing a series of textual analyses on 7 sequences selected from various episodes of Befarmaeed Sham, and with a focus on the contestants’ utterances, the present study uncovers some of the key representational aspects of this reality show. Ultimately, while highlighting the subtleties in cultural representation that render Befarmaeed Sham political, it is argued that this television programme offers audiences a new space for rethinking their Iranian selves. Keywords: Iranianness, satellite TV, cooking game show, representation, textual analysis.