Methods Applied: Political Transformation and Recent Ethnographic Fieldwork in Iran

Abstract

In the 1970s social cultural anthropology in Iran was beginning to fl ourish. However, with the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent Islamic Republic of Iran, fi eldwork in Iran became extremely problematic. Foreign anthropologists faced formidable obstacles to obtaining visas and permits. Anthropologists working inside Iran were also discouraged from anthropological participant observation. As a result, during the post revolutionary period, few anthropologists have been conducting fi eldwork in Iran. Recently, some hopeful signs for a possible reestablishment of anthropology can be noted, among them the return of young Iranian anthropologists, from countries where they have grown up and gained an education, to their homeland for dissertation research. Th is article discusses the infl uences on fi eldwork of politics-international, national and local-and projects, problems and strategies of some anthropologists who have conducted recent ethnographic fi eldwork in Iran.

Methodology Matters in Iran: Researching Social Movements in Authoritarian Contexts

“…How can they negotiate the code of conduct they are expected to respect, and how can they cope with the authoritarian intervention of the state? Such questions are fundamental, and several scholars have already engaged them (Clark 2006;Hegland 2004;Hegland and Friedl 2006;Merriam et al 2001;Nadjmabadi 2004;Rouhani 2004;Shahshahani 2006;Suzuki 2004). However, they are not alone in impacting the field researchers' practices and methods, as ethical challenges must also be taken into consideration.…”