Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War

The "Other" in Gender Studies

Thanks to the Me-Too Movement and books such as Gayle Lemmon's Duaghters of Kobani the West has been given important insights into obstacles faced by women around the world. In the West women are fighting for a society with an expansive view of civil rights. In the story of Lemmon's Kurdish female soldiers the immediate fight is for survival. We admire these women. It is easy. They uphold Western values. But gender studies should not allow us to pick and choose who we study. Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War presents the "other," the women whose bravery and dedication no on considers, because they fought for regimes few in the West would want to live under. They volunteered as fighters, medical personnel, journalists, cooks, and deliverers of food. They continued their role as they cared for husbands, brothers, and sons suffering from wounds physical, psychological, and emotional. No one has written a book inside or outside of Iran about then until now. An important new book.