Iranian Women in the Diaspora: ‘Being Here and Being There’

Today the term migrant have been shifted to diaspora and women are becoming a significant focus of attention in Diaspora and Transnational studies. The focus of this study is on Iranian diasporic women in the context of their relationship with home and host land, interrelations between different groups of Iranian communities, and their socio-cultural or political action through trans-nationalism and the issue of women’s rights in Iran. To explore their transnationalism, these women were individually interviewed about their perspectives on reasons for their departure from Iran, questions of Iranian women’s rights and the women’s new relationships in the land of settlement. The author applies Kim Butler’s ‘five dimensions’ of diaspora analysis in order to differentiate groups of Iranian women in the diaspora. The study examines the reasons and conditions of dispersal and the women’s ties with homeland and host country. The study is thus able to conclude that interrelationship patterns depend on the type of migration involved, and the age, class and activities of different groups of women with the Iranian diaspora communities. The study distinguishes between Activist women, Housewives and Students, as significant sub-categories of diasporic Iranian women, constructing their own kinds of transnationalism, whilst living in Europe and North America.