Pamela Karimi, Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran: Interior Revolutions of the Modern Era (New York: Routledge, 2013). Pp. 262. $145 cloth. ISBN: 978-0415781831

Abstract

Pamela Karimi's Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran is a welcome contribution to the small but growing literature on consumption in Middle East studies. Karimi argues that "the home, as both physical entity and metaphor, is essential to the understanding of social power structures in studies focusing on gender and post-colonial themes and of theories regarding the critical links between space and identity" (p. 6). A key aspect of focusing on the home is making Iranians themselves agents in their own history. Karimi bridges several bodies of literature: feminist literature on the household ranging from Betty Friedan to Ruth Schwartz Cowan, the growing literature on domesticity in Iran, and writings on art/architecture. The period of time examined in this study begins in the late Qajar period and concludes with the Islamic Republic, discussed in an epilogue. One of the major themes of the book is how Iranians have contended with Western influence, technology, and commodities for much of the 20th century. The author is clear in her argument that Iranians were in control of their own destiny. Whether through changes imposed by the state, schools created by missionaries, or the semicolonial status imposed by the oil industry, Iranians steadfastly chose what to put or not put in their homes and how to build them. Nevertheless, all these processes served to bring Western commodities to Iran and change the lay out of domestic interiors. "Perhaps the most important characteristic of these homes was the extent to which they provided new spaces for modern nuclear families.. .. As families became more compact, all the spaces within the home contributed to the welfare of the nuclear family" (p. 63). Gone were traditional interior courtyards, and added were new features, such as balconies and bay windows. What could have been the most pivotal chapter in the book, "The Cold War: Economics of Desire and Domesticity," falls short due to imbalanced coverage, historiographical shortcomings, and factual error. While the author purports to pit efforts of the Point IV program against efforts by the Tudeh party, she spends nearly the entire chapter on the Americans. At most, four of the thirty-five pages deal with the Soviet Union and the role of leftist women's magazines that eschewed Western notions of consumption. There really is not much "war" to the chapter, but a vast campaign embodied in the Point IV program. Interestingly enough, the author does not engage or discuss other works on the Point IV program, notably, Jonathan Alterman's Egypt & American Foreign Assistance (New York: Palgrave, 2002). For that matter, the author seems content not to examine the large and growing body of literature in the field on women, domesticity, education, and consumption outside of Iran, e.g. Nancy Reynolds (2012), Ellen Fleischmann (2003), and Akram Khater (2001). Perhaps what I found most shocking, in this otherwise well-researched, beautifully illustrated monograph was the most egregious factual error in a Cold War chapter. While undersco...