Notes

Introduction

1. I use the terms girls and women interchangeably to refer to ALLY’s clients. The distinction between dokhtar (girl) and zan (woman) implies not only an age difference but also one’s marital status, with the term dokhtar referring to young women who have not been married. Clients and staff often referred to clients as dokhtar-ha (girls), as many were unmarried and in their teen years.

2. The names of the organization and participants have been changed to protect their identity, and where it did not violate the essence of the analysis, I have changed information regarding participants’ private lives and roles at the organization to further protect their confidentiality.

Chapter 1

1. Manto (manteau) is a trenchcoat-style covering women are expected to wear in public to comply with the government’s hejab requirements.

Chapter 2

1. Shahrestani refers to people from provinces other than Tehran. The term is at times used in a derogatory tone by Tehranis to make status distinctions.

2. In 1934, Reza Shah changed the name of the country from Persia to Iran. For historical accuracy, I have used the term Persia when speaking of the pre-1930s period.

3. In Persian Pictures, published in 1894, Gertrude Bell describes her visit with three veiled women of the nobility in the following terms: “We left them gazing after us from behind their canvas walls. Their prisoned existence seemed to us a poor mockery of life as we cantered homewards up the damp valley, the mountain air sending a cheerful warmth through our veins” (cited in Naghibi 2007: xix).

4. Chador is a large piece of cloth covering the whole body, leaving only the face and the hands exposed.

5. The statement was famously made by Ayatollah Khomeini.

6. Maghnaeh is a loose and long head cover with one opening for the face.

7. The term badhejab refers to women who wear “improper” hejab or dress in public. Government regularly targets badhejab women through fines and jail time.

Chapter 4

1. Behzisti is Iran’s State Welfare Organization.

2. A pseudonym for a nongovernmental organization in Tehran that caters to undocumented Afghans.

3. A paramilitary volunteer militia in Iran that engages in activities such as internal security, repressing dissent, law enforcement, and social service (often) in exchange for social benefits.

Chapter 5

1. See Marcia Abramson, “Autonomy vs. Paternalistic Beneficences: Practice Strategies,” Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services 70, no. 2 (1989): 101–105; and Kelly LeRoux, “Paternalistic or Participatory Governance? Examining Opportunities for Client Participation in Nonprofit Social Service Organizations,” Public Administration Review 69, no. 3 (2009): 504–517.

Chapter 6

1. Literally means the value of milk given to the bride as an infant. The tradition of shirbaha involves giving the family of the bride a certain amount of money. The value of milk symbolizes the effort spent in preparing a girl to grow up and should be compensated when the fruit of the effort is transferred to the groom and his family. The tradition is mostly abandoned in Iran, especially among the middle and upper classes, and should not be mistaken for “buying the bride” (Moridani 2005).

Chapter 7

1. I use they/them pronouns when referring to Hiva even though I did not speak individually with Hiva about their gender identity and Farsi is a gender-neutral language without gender pronouns. Given Hiva’s nonbinary gender expressions, I use these pronouns to recognize their genderqueer identity.

2. The Khorasan province in northeastern Iran borders Afghanistan. In fact, until the mid-eighteenth century, much of today’s Afghanistan was part of the Khorasan region of the Iranian empires, and the intermingling of people lasted way past the territorial separations (Olszewska 2015).

3. Pesar nama can translate as “masculine-presenting” or “tomboy.”