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 INTERSECTIONALITY,
CLASS AND MIGRATION

N
W OME
NIA N U.K.
I R A T H E
OF TS IN
AT I VES R A N
R
NAR MIG

MASTOUREH FATHI

THE POLITICS OF
INTERSECTIONALITY
The Politics of Intersectionality

Series editors
Ange-Marie Hancock
University of Southern California
Los Angeles
CA, USA

Nira Yuval-Davis
University of East London
London, UK
Over the past 25 years, intersectionality has emerged as an internationally
recognized approach to conducting research that takes seriously inter-
locking issues of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Building upon the
worldwide interest among academics as well as political practitioners,
THE POLITICS OF INTERSECTIONALITY will be dedicated specifi-
cally to intersectionality, bringing together theory with pragmatic poli-
tics to an international audience. Books solicited will draw insights from
diverse scholarship and research in social divisions, including (but not
limited to) inclusion/exclusion in global market relations, rural/urban,
and nomad/settled. The idea that more than one category of difference
is relevant to politics has been a longstanding if not always widely prac-
ticed claim in ethnic studies and women’s studies, respectively, and this
series looks to expand upon that existing literature.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14414
 Mastoureh Fathi

Intersectionality, Class
and Migration
Narratives of Iranian Women Migrants in the U.K.
Mastoureh Fathi
School of Law
Royal Holloway University
of London
Egham, UK

The Politics of Intersectionality

ISBN 978-1-137-52529-1 ISBN 978-1-137-52530-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-52530-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939106

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Maryam Prout (Fathi)

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Nature America, Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
To my mother Tayebbeh Akhlaghi and father Abbasali Fathi
 Series Introduction: The Politics of
Intersectionality

The Politics of Intersectionality series has been edited by Prof. Ange-

Marie Hancock from University of Southern California, USA and myself
since 2011. It builds on the long-standing insights of intersectionality
theory from a vast variety of disciplinary perspectives. As a globally uti-
lised analytical framework for understanding issues of social justice, Leslie
McCall, Mary Hawkesworth and others argue that intersectionality is
arguably the most important theoretical contribution of women’s and
gender studies to date.1 Indeed, the imprint of intersectional analysis can
be easily found on innovations in equality legislation, human rights and
development discourses.
The history of what is now called ‘intersectional thinking’ is long. In
fact, prior to its mainstreaming, intersectionality analysis was carried for
many years mainly by black and other racialised women who, from their
situated gaze, perceived as absurd, not just misleading, any attempt by
feminists and others to homogenise women’s situation, particularly in
conceptualising such situations as analogous to that of racialised oth-
ers. As Brah and Phoenix point out,2 many black feminists fulfilled sig-
nificant roles in the development of intersectional analysis, such as the
Combahee River Collective, the black lesbian feminist organisation from
Boston, who pointed out the need of developing an integrated analysis
and practice based upon the fact that major systems of oppression inter-
lock rather than operate separately. However, the term ‘intersectionality’

vii
viii Series Introduction: The Politics of Intersectionality

itself emerged nominally from the field of critical legal studies, where
critical race feminist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw wrote two path-
breaking articles, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A
Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist
Politics’3 and ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics,
and Violence Against Women of Color’.4 At nearly the same time,
social theorist Patricia Hill Collins was preparing her landmark work,
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of
Empowerment,5 which characterised intersections of race, class and gen-
der as mutually reinforcing sites of power relations.
Both Crenshaw and Collins gave the name ‘intersectionality’ to a
far larger and more ethnically diverse trajectory of work, now global in
nature, that speaks truth to power sited differentially rather than central-
ised in a single locus. What could also be called intersectional analysis
was in fact developing at roughly the same time among European and
postcolonial feminists, including Anthias and Yuval-Davis (1983; 1992),6
Brah (1996),7 Essed (1991),8 Ifekwunigwe (1999),9 Lutz (1991),10
Meekosha11 and Min-ha (1989).12 Indeed, it seems that, in a man-
ner parallel to that which Sandra Harding characterises the evolution of
standpoint theory,13 intersectionality was an idea whose time had come
precisely because of the plethora of authors working independently
across the globe to make vastly similar sets of claims. Around the world,
those interested in a more comprehensive and transformative approach
to social justice—whether sociologists, legal scholars, feminist theo-
rists, policymakers or human rights advocates—have used the language
and tenets of intersectionality to more effectively articulate injustice and
advocate for positive social change.
The books in this series represent an interrogation of intersectionality
at various levels of analysis. They unabashedly foreground the politics of
intersectionality in a way that is designed to both honour the legacy of
earlier scholarship and activism as well as to push the boundaries of inter-
sectionality’s value to the academy and most importantly to the world.
We interpret the series title, The Politics of Intersectionality, in two gen-
eral ways.
First, we emphasise the politics of intersectionality, broadly con-
ceived; that is to say, we include debates among scholars regarding the
proper conceptualisation and application of the term ‘intersectionality’ as
part and parcel of the series’ intellectual project. Is intersectionality a par-
adigm?14 Is intersectionality a normative political (specifically feminist)
 Series Introduction: The Politics of Intersectionality ix

project?15 Is it a method or epistemological approach? Is it (merely) a

concept with limited applicability beyond multiply marginalised popu-
lations?16 Our own idiosyncratic answers to these questions are far less
important than the open dialogue we seek by including them within the
scholarly discourse generated by the series.
What this means pragmatically is that rather than dictatorially denote
an extant definition of intersectionality and impose it on every author’s
manuscript, as series editors our task has been to meaningfully push each
author to grapple with their own conceptualisation of intersectional-
ity and facilitate their interaction with an ever-growing body of global
scholarship, policy and advocacy work as they render such a conceptu-
alisation transparent to readers, reflexive as befits the best feminist work
and committed to rigorous standards of quality no matter the subject, the
method or the conclusions. As editors, we have taken such an active role
precisely because grappling with the politics of intersectionality demands
our adherence to the normative standards of transparency, reflexivity and
speaking to multiple sites of power for which intersectionality is not only
known but lauded as the gold standard. It is our honour to build this
area of scholarship across false boundaries of theory and praxis; artificially
distinct academic disciplines; and the semipermeable line between schol-
arship and activism.
No less importantly, we emphasise politics to mean, well, politics,
whether everyday senses of justice; the so-called ‘formal’ politics of social
movements, campaigns, elections, policy and government institutions;
or personal politics of identity, community and activism across a broad
swath of the world. While this general conceptualisation of politics lends
itself to the social sciences, we define social sciences in a broad way that
again seeks to unite theoretical concerns (whether normative or positive)
with interpretive and empirical approaches across an array of topics far
too numerous to list in their entirety.
The second way we interpret the series title—simultaneously, as one
might expect of intersectionality scholars—is with an emphasis on the
word intersectionality. That is, the books in this series do not depend
solely on 20-year old articulations of intersectionality, nor do they adhere
to one particular theoretical or methodological approach to study inter-
sectionality; they are steeped in a rich literature of both substantive and
analytical depth that in the twenty-first century reaches around the world.
This is not your professor’s ‘women of color’ or ‘race-class-gender’
series of the late twentieth century. Indeed, an emphasis on up to date
x Series Introduction: The Politics of Intersectionality

engagement with the best and brightest global thinking on intersectionality

has been the single most exacting standard we have imposed on the edit-
ing process. As series editors, we seek to develop manuscripts that aspire to
a level of sophistication about intersectionality as a body of research that is,
in fact, worthy of the intellectual, political and personal risks taken by so
many of its earliest interlocutors in voicing and naming this work.
Currently, intersectionality scholarship lacks a meaningful clear-
inghouse of work that speaks across (again false) boundaries of a par-
ticular identity community under study (e.g. Black lesbians, women of
color environmental activists), academic disciplines or the geographi-
cal location from which the author writes (e.g. Europe, North America
and Southeast Asia). For that reason, we expect that the bibliographies
of the manuscripts will be almost as helpful as the manuscripts them-
selves, particularly for senior professors who train graduate students and
graduate students seeking to immerse themselves broadly and deeply
in contemporary approaches to intersectionality. We are less sanguine,
however, about the plethora of modifiers that have emerged to some-
how modulate intersectionality—whether it be an intersectional stigma,17
intersectional political consciousness,18 intersectional praxis,19 post-
intersectionality,20 paradigm intersectionality21 or even Crenshaw’s origi-
nal modes of structural and political intersectionality.22 Our emphasis has
been on building the subfield rather than consciously expanding the lexi-
con of modes and specialities for intersectionality.
It is thus with pleasure and pride that we invite you to join a global
intellectual endeavour—that of The Politics of Intersectionality series.
We welcome your engagement, submissions and constructive comments
as we move forward to broaden the world’s conversation in the direction
of social justice.
Given the above, this present book of Dr. Mastoureh Fathi is espe-
cially welcome, as it approaches the analysis of intersectionality and the
politics of intersectionality from the situated gazes of Iranian women
doctors living in the UK. As such, it examines the ambivalent con-
structions of classed, gendered, racialised identities of middle-class
professional women who are often excluded from more traditional inter-
sectionality analyses which focused on the most marginalised and disad-
vantaged women. It focuses on their classed identities, classed belongings
and the ways these classed gendered racialised belongings are performed.
However, it does it within an analytical framework which embeds these
identities in the social, political and economic grids of power in which
 Series Introduction: The Politics of Intersectionality xi

these women live and how they are both included and excluded from
accessibility of different social, economic and cultural capitals.
The analyses in this book, therefore, are able to bridge the politics of
intersectionality with more culturalist approaches to class analysis and
highlight its importance in order for such an analysis not to be depoliti-
cised or dehistoricised as some of the more culturalist approaches to the
study of gender and class have tended to do.
In addition to its analytical powers, the book provides fascinating data
about the ways gendered classed belongings travel between Iran and the
UK, and thus helps us to decentre and enrich the meaning of class and
other social divisions beyond the Eurocentre.

Nira Yuval-Davis
University of East London, UK

Notes
1. McCall, Leslie (2005) “The Complexity of Intersectionality.” Signs: A
Journal of Women and Culture in Society, 1771; Hawkesworth, Mary
(2006) Feminist Inquiry: From Political Conviction to Methodological
Innovation.
2. Brah, Avtar and Ann Phoenix (2004) “Ain’t I a Woman? Revisiting
Intersectionality” Journal of International Women’s Studies 5:3, 80.
3. 1989, University of Chicago Legal Forum 139.
4. 43 Stanford Law Review (1991).
5. New York: Routledge, 1990.
6. Anthias, F. and N. Yuval-Davis (1983). “Contextualising Feminism:
Gender, Ethnic & Class divisions.” Feminist Review 15(November):
62-75; Anthias, F. and N. Yuval-Davis (1992). Racialized Boundaries:
Race, Nation, Gender, Colour and Class and The Anti-Racist Struggle.
London, Routledge.
7. Brah, Avtar (1996). Cartographies of Diaspora. London, Routledge.
8. Essed, Philomena. (1991). Understanding Everyday Racism: An
Interdisciplinary Theory. Newbury Park, CA, Sage.
9. Ifekwunigwe, J. (1999), Scattered Belongings, London: Sage.
10. Lutz, H. (1991). Migrant women of “Islamic background”. . Amsterdam
Middle East Research Associates.
11. Meekosha, H. and L. Dowse (1997). “Enabling Citizenship: Gender,
Disability and Citizenship in Australia.” Feminist Review 57: 49–72.
xii Series Introduction: The Politics of Intersectionality

12. Minh-ha, Trinh T. (1989), Woman, Native, Other: Writing

Postcolonialism and Feminism Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Press.
13. Harding, Sandra [ (1997), “Comment on Hekman’s “Truth and
Method: Feminism Standpoint Theory Revisited”: Whose Standpoint
Needs Regimes of Truth and Reality?” Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society 22(2): 382-91; p. 389.
14. Hancock (2007) “When Multiplication Doesn’t Equal Quick Addition:
Examining Intersectionality as a Research Paradigm.” Perspectives on
Politics, 5:1, 63–79.
15. Yuval-Davis (2006) “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics” European
Journal of Women’s Studies 13:3, 193–209.
16. Jordan-Zachery (2007) “Am I a Black Woman or a Woman Who is
Black? A Few Thoughts on the Meaning of Intersectionality.” Politics and
Gender 3:3, 254–263.
17. Strolovitch, Dara (2007) Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class and Gender
in Interest Group Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
18. Greenwood, Ronni Michelle (2008) “Intersectional Political
Consciousness: Appreciation for Intragroup Differences and Solidarity
Across Diverse Groups.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 32:1, 36–47.
19. Townsend-Bell, Erica (2011) “What is Relevance? Defining Intersectional
Praxis in Uruguay.” Political Research Quarterly 64:1, 187–199.
20. Kwan, Peter (1997) “Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, Class, Gender and
Sexual Orientation: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Cosynthesis of Categories”
48 Hastings Law Journal.
21. Hancock (2011) Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending
the Oppression Olympics. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
22. Crenshaw (1989) “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A
Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist
Politics” University of Chicago Legal Forum 139.
 Acknowledgements

There have been numerous individuals whose input helped me with the
formation of ideas and development of arguments during my PhD and
post-doctoral periods that led to the formation of this book. The first of
many are the Iranian women who took part in the interviews and talked
to me for many hours.
I am indebted forever to Nira Yuval-Davis for her support, supervi-
sion, advice, comments, encouragements and criticisms to my PhD thesis
and on drafts of this book. I shall thank Molly Andrews for her con-
tinuous intellectual support to my research and scholarship. My sincere
appreciation goes to Anita Fabos whose initial training whilst I started
my PhD placed me in the right place to finish this and other projects in
the coming years. I am grateful to the illuminating and on-going discus-
sions that I have had with Ann Phoenix whose influence in my life has
been immense.
I would like to thank my colleagues and long-term friends in two
research centres I am affiliated with: Centre for Narrative Research and
Centre for Refugees, Migration and Belonging at the University of
East London. In alphabetical order, I like to thank Cigdem Esin, Jamie
Hakim, Aura Lounasmaa, late Siyanda Ndlovu, Nicola Samson, Corinne
Squire, Maria Tamboukou, Bahar Taseli, Angie Voela, Aaron Winter,
Georgie Wemyss and Tahir Zaman. I am grateful to the scholarship and
funding I received from University of East London, British Academy,
Funds for Women Graduates and British Sociological Association that
facilitated my research and impact.

xiii
xiv Acknowledgements

I am also grateful to my colleagues at Bournemouth University whose

support and constructive feedbacks and conversations made finishing
the book easier than it could have been: Jonathan Parker, Sara Crabtree,
Vanora Hundley, Hyun Joo Lim, Paolo Palmieri, Donya Rahmani,
Stephanie Schawndner-Sievers, Edwin van Teijlingen, Candida Yates. I
am grateful to Bournemouth University for funding my post-doctoral
position that gave me the financial security to complete this book.
I benefitted a lot from conversations with my dear friends and col-
leagues, Ali Ali, Nadia Aghtaie, Veria Amiri, Afsaneh Ehsani, Arash
Eshghi, Fataneh Farahani, Yohai Hakak, Shani Orgad, Edward
Rampersaud, Ali Sadreddin, Alex Simpson, Atlas Torbati, Ulrike Vieten
and Pooya Ghodousi.
Finally I shall thank my family members for their on-going love and
care in my well-being, health and happiness: to my mother Tayyebeh and
my father, Abbasali and to Ahmad, Bita, Mahdis, Maryam, Mehdi, Mitra,
Jeremy, Reza, Saeed, Sarvenaz, Taghi and Zari.
 Contents

1 Class, Intersectionality and Iranian Diaspora 1

1.1 Iranian Women’s Employment and Class 4
1.2 Iranian Migrants and Social Class 5
1.3 Making Sense of Class in Migration: Co-constructing
Narratives 7
1.4 Iranian Parties, Concerts and Doctors’ Hubs 10
1.5 Religion, an Absent Theme in Class Stories 12
1.6 Outline of the Book 13
References 15

2 Intersectionality and Translocational Class 21

2.1 Classic Literature of Class and the Question of
Intersectionality 22
2.1.1 Marxism and Class 22
2.1.2 Status and Class 23
2.1.3 The Cultural Turn to Class 25
2.2 Intersectionality and the Treatment of Class 29
2.2.1 Situated Intersectionality 32
2.2.2 Power Relations and Intersectionality 33
2.2.3 Privileged Position and Intersectionality 35
2.3 Identity and Translocational Positionality 36
2.3.1 Translocational Class 41
2.4 Conclusion 42
References 43

xv
xvi Contents

3 Classed and Gendered Growing up 49

3.1 Educational Surveillance 50
3.1.1 Creating Ambition: Passing on Class to the Girls 51
3.1.2 Mothers and Class Surveillance 52
3.1.3 Lack of Choice or Destined Pathways? 57
3.1.4 Governing the Ambition 59
3.2 Normalisation of Pathways 60
3.2.1 Lack of Ambition as Deviant 62
3.2.2 Not Discussing Class to Construct Classed Identity 64
3.2.3 Embarrassment and Normalisation 66
3.2.4 Westernisation as a ‘Normal’ Pathway 68
3.3 The Making of a Moral Self 71
3.3.1 Respect 72
3.4 Conclusion 75
References 78

4 Classed Place-Making 81
4.1 Diasporic Spaces 82
4.2 Countries 85
4.3 Schools 88
4.4 Neighbourhoods 91
4.5 Spatial Class: A Conclusion 94
References 95

5 Classed Performing 97
5.1 Class-Coded Acts 99
5.1.1 Class and Performance: A Delicate Relationship 101
5.1.2 Performing Class-Coded Acts 101
5.2 Feminine Doctors: Femininity and Educational Capital 105
5.2.1 ‘Owning’ the Doctor’s Role: Being Authentic 108
5.2.2 Classed Performance and Morality 110
5.3 Compulsory Class 114
5.3.1 Imagined Images, Real Differences 117
5.4 Translocational Class Performances: A Conclusion 121
References 123
 Contents xvii

6 Classed Racialisation 127

6.1 Being Racialised 129
6.2 Racialising Others 136
6.3 Racialisation in Class Construction 140
6.4 Conclusion 141
References 143

7 Classed Belonging 145

7.1 Foreignness, Power and Class 147
7.1.1 Is There a Glass Ceiling in British Society? 152
7.1.2 ‘I Make Here My Soil. I Make Here
My Country4’ 154
7.2 ‘Others’ and the Hierarchies of Belonging 158
7.2.1 ‘Deserving’ to Belong 161
7.3 Conclusion 165
References 167

8 Understanding Class Intersectionally: A Way Forward 169

8.1 Situated Understanding of Class 170
8.2 Intersectionality and Class 171
8.3 Social Locations, Relations and Localities 174
8.4 Complexity of Social Class 178
8.4.1 The Importance of Power 178
8.4.2 The Importance of Inclusion and Exclusion 179
8.4.3 Learning How to Perform Acts that Are Expected 180
References 181

Bibliography 183

Index 191
 CHAPTER 1

Class, Intersectionality
and Iranian Diaspora

At the heart of this book is an in-depth analysis of class experiences that

at first glance may not be about class! The novel approach taken in this
book is intersectional—one identity category is analysed in relation to
processes that construct it in different ways. In this book, my endeavour
is to answer subtle questions that take class experiences to the next level
in an intersectional way: how it is possible to identify one’s class posi-
tion through migration stories? To what extent do experiences of being
an independent woman affect one’s understanding of social class in an
Iranian family setting? How does living in a particular neighbourhood
make one more/less British? Does having children (born in a migrant
family) create a sense of belonging or make one more alienated to British
society? These are important questions that are emerging in public and
policy discourses in today’s world where many countries’ foreign policy,
health, education and security policies, focus on migrants. It is vital to
consider what processes lead to migrants’ responses to alienating policies
that address them, remind them that they do not belong to host socie-
ties even though they are badly needed in these societies to run the very
same services that they are accused of damaging. This book is about class
analysis through everyday experiences of highly skilled migrants who
should all feel part of the British society, but, as will become clear, often
do not. My intention here is to bring back class experiences to feminist
analysis in order to better understand identities and positionalities after
migration by focusing on personal narratives and their intersection with
other elements of the lives of migrant women featured in this book.

© The Author(s) 2017 1

M. Fathi, Intersectionality, Class and Migration, The Politics
of Intersectionality, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-52530-7_1
2 M. Fathi

Intersections of identity are at the heart of this book in terms of meth-

odology: how class is produced, recognised and utilised strategically as an
identity marker and how it is seen as a framework for understanding the
wider social context of Iranian migrant women’s lives.
Class is a salient aspect of everyone’s life, especially for those who are
hurt by it, as Sennet and Cobb (1993) put it eloquently in their work
on working-class American men in the 1970s, although class experiences
are not limited to working-class individuals. Stories about class provide
us with a bigger picture of the world in which we live, both about the
marginalised ‘other’, such as migrants, women and the working classes
as well as about the privileged individuals, such as the ‘white’, the mid-
dle class, the wealthy; the latter group tends to be left out of studies that
analyse the importance of class. Or it might be better to say that we, as
researchers, feel compelled to study the former due to the responsibili-
ties or the risks attached to study of the latter. However, there is another
reason for the absence of class: social class may not have seemed impor-
tant in the understanding of many social movements such as feminism
and anti-racist movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
However, as Beverly Skeggs (1997a), a British scholar on class and gen-
der, puts it: ‘without understanding the significance of class positioning
many of the women’s movements through social space, through edu-
cation, families, labour markets and, in particular, in the production of
their subjectivity, could not be understood’ (Skeggs 1997a, p. 6).
The impetus in writing this book stems from my own classed experi-
ences of growing up in 1980s Iran and post-millennium UK as a grad-
uate student and a migrant woman. Despite efforts aimed at turning
children of my age into a classless generation, class had a strong pres-
ence for me, my siblings and perhaps for everyone whom I knew around
me in Iran. As the children of the revolution, or the dahe shasti (1960s)
generation, we all appeared to live similarly in our daily lives, turning up
every day for mass prayers at school, wearing the same dark-coloured
uniforms and reading the same books designed for both school and
extra-school curriculum. Despite Ayatollah Khomeini’s pronouncement
of Iran as a classless society (Nomani and Behdad 2006) in the 1980s,
the general understanding of and yearning for education, particularly
among women, undeniably shaped lives of generations of girls and boys
after 1979. Many women from working-class backgrounds entered uni-
versity or, rather, persuaded their families to let them study on the basis
that university was now considered to be an Islamic place (Khosrokhavar
 1 CLASS, INTERSECTIONALITY AND IRANIAN DIASPORA 3

and Ghaneirad 2010).1 Health and education sectors were expanded

to provide a female workforce to serve female clients, a policy that was
encouraged by the government in order to segregate the sexes in the
public sphere. Although such policies shaped the workforce and drove
women to specific healthcare and teaching disciplines, they had profound
effects on Iranian society, influencing men’s expectations of their wives,
children’s understanding of their mothers, women’s sense of independ-
ence and their class position, both within the home sphere and in the
society. However, class experiences always remained a priori, a subject
that was perhaps not worthy of research, or not available to be explained
and analysed, perhaps even redundant as a marker of identity for women
in Iran, as their class positions were always dependent on their husbands
or fathers. These classed realities testify to the lasting, though constantly
changing, presence of class in Iranians’ lives.
Class analysis in this book is subjective, relational and is limited to the
interpersonal relationships among Iranian migrants at a particular time and
context (British society 2007–2012). It applies an intersectional frame-
work to challenge the formation of class in relation to gendered growing-
up, performing, racialisation, place-making and belonging. This is done by
focusing on the narratives that show the various categories and processes
which work together to marginalise, empower, sideline or spotlight indi-
viduals (although I do not limit my analysis to a binary distinction).2 I use
an analysis of intersectionality that falls neither into ‘anticategorical’ nor in
‘intercategorical’ analysis of intersectionality (McCall 2005), as it offers a
unique way that does not deny the categories themselves but to look at the
processes that help them to come to existence: categories such as middle
class, Iranian, British, English, doctor, migrant and so on. After discussing
the theoretical framework (Chap. 2) this book will delve into transloca-
tional components, processes and complexities of these categories. The ana-
lytical chapters include classed pathways of becoming an educated woman,
(Chap. 3); the meaning making of spaces in which one is living one’s life,
(Chap. 4); classed performances and practices, such as learning to perform
as a doctor (Chap. 5); experiences of racialisation, (Chap. 6); the sense of
being included or excluded in British society, (Chap. 7) concentrating on
the formation of privilege and dominance of class in the world and among
migrants (Chap. 8). As such, it attempts to highlight the role that power
relations play in the discussions around class, not just on a macro-level,
such as the power that theocratic government of Iran deploys in disciplin-
ing individuals, but at the level that governs, coerces and sometimes helps
4 M. Fathi

everyone’s life in all spheres and angles (Foucault 1982). Power relations
that are central to the micro-politics of these women’s lives exist in myriad
ways between individuals in their day-to-day experiences of inclusion and
exclusion, belonging and identity formation (Tamboukou 1999).

1.1  Iranian Women’s Employment and Class

In the decades after the Iranian revolution in 1979, due, among many
other reasons, to mismanagement, political corruption and lack of inter-
national interest in investment in Iran, the job market offered limited
choices, which affected women more harshly than men. Employers’ pref-
erences were to employ men, because women were likely to be prevented
from work by husbands, fall pregnant or refuse to be flexible due to
childcare responsibilities (Khosrokhavar and Ghaneirad 2010). This also
led to mass emigration of an educated young workforce.3
In the West, literature on classed identities mainly argues that choice,
decision making and possession of cultural capital are important in
determining one’s class position (Bourdieu 1984; Lawler 2008; Skeggs
1997b). However, this may not be the correct characterisation of Iranian
women, as career choices are limited for women in Iran. Women are
constantly pressured to choose professions that are ‘compatible’ both in
law and in society with women’s biological roles as mothers and wives,
such as teaching, nursing and medicine (Kar 1999)—professions that
could offer a form of employment to women. However, as will become
clear in this book, the medical professions are mainly populated by stu-
dents from middle-class families. Although higher education remains
an important concern of Iranian women, its use as a strategic tool to
change women’s lives and to negotiate their rights, such as child cus-
tody, were left to the discretion of Sharia courts in Iran (Keddie 2003;
Shavarini and Robinson 2005). Although Islamisation of the coun-
try was determinant in women’s access to higher education, especially
for those from working-class and more conservative backgrounds,
there are scholars who argue that Islam and the revolution had a nega-
tive impact in terms of limiting women’s participation in the labour
market (Nomani and Afshar 1997; Moghissi 1994). According to
Rostami-Povey (2016), large numbers of educated Iranian women are
facing gender inequality in employment due to the work sphere’s con-
tinual domination by men, and patriarchal policies. The ever-more pre-
carious nature of women’s employment, addressing class experiences,
has remained thus far a neglected area of research on women in Iran.
 1 CLASS, INTERSECTIONALITY AND IRANIAN DIASPORA 5

Increasingly, women are barred from studying certain subjects at univer-

sities, although, and because, for years they have outnumbered male uni-
versity entrants.
The small number of studies on socio-economic systems and social
status in Iran (Honarbin-Holliday 2013; Mehdizadeh and Scott 2011;
Moghadam 1993; Moghissi and Rahnema 2001; Nomani and Behdad
2006, 2006), on women’s political participation (Moghissi 1994) and
on female education (Mehran 2003a, b) indicate that classed experi-
ences, although important in a class-dominated society, remain a topic
with seemingly less priority compared to gender (Fathi 2015). An excep-
tion to this type of research is Poya’s (1999) Marxist analysis of women’s
participation in the labour market; however, although this is important
in analysing the hidden contributions of women to Iranian economy,
it does not address experiences of women at subjective level (see also
Moghadam 2002).

1.2  Iranian Migrants and Social Class

Like women’s employment, emigration was also perceived by the post-
revolutionary Iranian regime as a challenge to itself and a potential
source for the formation of an opposition outside the country (Fathi
1991). In later periods after the 1979 Revolution, waves of mass emi-
gration from the country coincided with social and political changes in
government structure, policies and laws, such the Iran–Iraq war (1980–
1988), President Khatami’s reformism and backlash against thinkers
and dissidents (1997–2005), and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency
and repression of student movements (2005–2013). The societal tur-
moil in post-revolutionary years added to the growing economic prob-
lems and high rates of unemployment amongst educated and highly
skilled young people. Growing number of Iranians from various socio-
economic backgrounds and political views sought employment, a life
and freedom in Kharej (mainly Western countries). The post-revolu-
tionary migration of highly skilled migrants, political dissidents, civil
activists and elites from Iran along refugee, student or skilled-migrant
routes has important implications for Iranian society and has contrib-
uted to a growing diaspora outside Iran (Bozorgmehr 1998; Nassehi-
Behnam 1991). There have been a number of motivating factors in
each era that encouraged various groups of Iranian citizens—mainly a
young and educated workforce—to leave the country; primarily reli-
gious, political and socio-cultural motives (Nassehi-Behnam 1991). The
6 M. Fathi

Revolution particularly caused an increase in the number of physicians

emigrating. Following the Cultural Revolution (1979–1982) and the
Islamisation of universities, vast numbers of physicians left Iran, in one
case resulting in the closure of a leading medical department at Shiraz
University. The majority of the Shiraz Department of Community
Medicine either emigrated or turned towards private clinical work dur-
ing ‘the cleansing’ of Iranian universities of ‘unfaithful’ professors and
students (Ronaghy and Simon 1983).4
Brain drain from Iran has been a topic of some scholarly debates
(Carrington and Detriache 1998; 1999), one that the Iranian govern-
ment denies (Chaichian 2011; Torbat 2002). In the post-revolutionary
era, the number of educated Iranian migrants who left Iran at some
point in the 1990s reached more than 150,000 a year from which 25%
had tertiary education (Carrington and Detriache 1998; 1999).5 There
does not appear to have been much investigation into why people from
particular occupational groups leave their country. However, immigra-
tion policies in countries such as Canada and Australia, which are among
the main destinations for highly skilled Iranian migrants, limit and con-
trol the inflow of migrants according to the countries’ specific needs of
particular occupational groups, and medicine has always been one of
the desirable professions.6 In the UK, the 2011 Census showed that the
number of Iranian immigrants increased to 82,000, with over 44% of the
women and 36% of the men going on to take an undergraduate degree
(Moghissi et al. 2009).
The migration literature also rarely addresses the lives of Iranian phy-
sicians, academics and dentists and the causes of their migration and its
effects upon them, despite a large number of them emigrating from Iran
every year. The official statistics about this are not available, and related
information on different websites is rather contradictory. However, pro-
fessional limitations such as the lack of resources and training at higher
levels, as well as restrictions imposed on physicians7 and other experts
and elites, are seen to be among the major reasons for their emigration.
Loefler (2001) proposes three major reasons as to why doctors migrate:
(1) to learn; (2) to seek professional satisfaction combined with the
opportunity to make a decent living; and (3) to escape political oppres-
sion and professional stagnation (Loefler 2001, p. 504).
Iranians have mainly emigrated to the USA, Canada, Germany,
Sweden, Britain, France, Norway, Australia, Israel and Japan
(Bozorgmehr 1998). Studies carried out about Iranians in countries such
 1 CLASS, INTERSECTIONALITY AND IRANIAN DIASPORA 7

as the USA (Bozorgmehr and Sabagh 1996; Bozorgmehr et al. 1996;

Shahidian 1999); France (Kian-Thiebaut 1998; Nassehi-Behnam 2005),
Canada (Moghissi 2006; Moghissi et al. 2009; Mojab 2010; Sadeghi
2008), Britain (Gholami 2016; Spellman 2004), the Netherlands
(Ghorashi 2008; Van den Bos and Nell 2006), and Sweden (Farahani
2007; Hosseini-Kaladjahi 1997) narrate a wide range of reasons as to
why Iranians migrate and how they live their lives after migration; how-
ever, all have political repression as one major reason.
The wealth of studies on Iranian migrants indicates a lack of focus on
class analysis. Mainly revolving around gender, education and domes-
tic violence, these studies specifically analyse sexual identities (Farahani
2006, 2007), religion, coping and settlement (Gholami 2016; Moghissi
2006), mental health (Dossa 2004), educational achievement (Mojab
2010; Sadeghi 2008), violence against women (Aghtaie 2015; Aghtaie
and Gangoli 2015) and community construction (Ghorashi 2003,
2004; Shahidian 1999). All these studies show strong class elements but
none has placed class at the heart of their analytical focus. For example,
Spellman’s critical ethnographic study of Iranian religious networks and
women’s gatherings in London shows the importance of class but does
not deeply investigate its effect on religious practices and the exclusive
networks that religious practices create (Spellman 2004).
The focus in this book is not on structural class analysis in Iran. The
Iranian economy, its changes and the analysis of different social classes
within Iranian society after the Islamic revolution have been thoroughly
addressed by Nomani and Behdad (2006). Instead, I place a transloca-
tional and intersectional analysis of class identity and the narratives to
unfold its components and processes of formation in relation to gender,
performance, space, race and belonging. In the following section, the
methodology of such narrative analysis will be detailed.

1.3  Making Sense of Class in Migration:

Co-constructing Narratives
This book on Iranian women doctors, dentists and academics8 will reveal
how meanings of classed identities were transformed after these women
emigrated from Iran, the ways in which these differences are narrated
and why stories formed in relation to particular people are of importance.
The social relations that define what class means to a particular individ-
ual, group or nation are told through stories, and such narratives play an
important role in telling us about identities. As Andrews (2007a, p. 2)
8 M. Fathi

argues, ‘when we relate stories of our lives, we implicitly communicate

to others something of our political worldviews, our Weltanschauung’.
Telling stories about class shows how it is constructed from real experi-
ences. We narrate stories to be understood, to communicate and to live.
Narratives are a major part of how we make sense of events, our feel-
ings and ourselves. These stories are intersectional and are rich sources
of studying different social positionings of gender, race, ability/disabil-
ity, sexuality, educational level and so on. As soon as we start narrating a
story, we take a position on who we are and how we want others to see
and understand us within and outside the framework of the narrative that
we tell.
The precise meaning of ‘narrative’ is not straightforward (Squire
et al. 2008). Narrative has a broad meaning (Craib 2004; Riessman
1993) and it can be applied to different things from a ‘spoken recount-
ing of particular past events that happened to the narrator’ (Labov and
Waletsky 1967 cited in Squire et al. 2008, p. 5) to the consideration
of everyday activities of life that are given ‘external expression’ (Squire
et al. 2008, p. 5). Elliot (2005, p. 11) proposes three main charac-
teristics of narrative: the temporal, the meaningful and the social,
and to these Bradbury (2016) adds ‘relationality’. As such, narratives
are important heuristic tools for researching people’s lives and, as
Andrews (2007b) argues, they are fundamental tools of communica-
tion and imaginations, although people and communities do not nec-
essarily hear stories in the same way or as intended by the narrators
(Andrews 2007b; Squire et al. 2008). This means that all of us create
our own situated meanings. Following this approach, my own interpre-
tation is an important aspect of the analysis of class narratives; I do not
just ‘mirror’ views about class but also actively co-construct their sto-
ries through the dialogues I have had with numerous Iranian migrant
women.
In these dialogically co-constructed stories (Bakhtin 1981) that
took place in the format of interviews, individuals interact with and
make sense of their stories in social patterns and together, keeping in
mind the present and absent, ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ audiences of their
worlds. During the fieldwork that I conducted in the UK to write this
book, most of the interviewees commented that they had never previ-
ously thought about my questions. Most were expecting questionnaires
and ‘some boxes to tick’ because, to them, social class was predominantly
based upon their household income and little else. I was interested in
 1 CLASS, INTERSECTIONALITY AND IRANIAN DIASPORA 9

stories that were told outside these boxes. Such answers clarified that
stories are told in dialogue (Riessman 2008), with a purpose and to a
specific audience (including me and the readers) (Bakhtin 1981) and
are intersectional (Andrews 1991). In these class stories, the elements
which made their narratives so particular to them were: meaning, inten-
tionality, temporality, relationality and audience. Rankin (2002), draw-
ing on the work of Ricoeur and Bakhtin, argues that narrative is the
synthesis of three elements: ‘narrative work’, ‘a narrative mode of con-
sciousness’ and ‘a narrative communication’. Riessman counts some
‘ingredients’ as essential for narrative: (1) the meaningfulness of the story
to the speaker; (2) the speaker’s decision as to why a story is relevant for
a particular question; and (3) for whom they are narrating it (Riessman
2008). The class stories that are narrated throughout this book have
been analysed using a similar method. The first ingredient (meaning-
fulness) is used more for thematic analysis. The specific approach of the
dialogic/performance analysis focuses on ‘who’ an utterance is directed
at and ‘when’ and ‘why’ it is made (Riessman 2008, p. 105). It ‘draws
on components of thematic and structural analysis, but folds them into
broad interpretive research inquiries’ (Riessman 2008, p. 136). In this
approach, the researcher:

joins a chorus of contrapuntal voices, which the reader can also join. To
put it differently, intersubjectivity and reflexivity come to the fore as there
is a dialogue between researcher and researched, text and reader, knower
and known. (Riessman 2008, p. 137)

Dialogical co-construction of meanings takes place in a larger social con-

text (Bakhtin 1981) and, as I will show throughout the book, my anal-
ysis goes beyond a simple thematic analysis: it is contextualised within
the larger political, cultural and social structures of the milieux in which
these women live their lives; for example, in many occasions, the notion
of class was tied to marriage, because this is a conventional way to talk
about the class position of women in Iran within heteronormative sys-
tems which decree that women should be seen as heterosexual married
subjects. On the other hand, revolution, migration and integration were
also important points of reference to social class that all require discursive
and contextual analysis. In the following section, I will explain where and
how I conducted the fieldwork for the projects underpinning this book:
10 M. Fathi

1.4  Iranian Parties, Concerts and Doctors’ Hubs

The Iranian diaspora in Britain is diverse in terms of religion, class and
ethnicity. There are no major Iranian communities anywhere in Britain,
which makes it difficult to conduct research with Iranians. There are
more Iranians living in large cities, and in London the areas of Harrow
and Finchley are known to host a greater concentration of Iranians.
These areas have Iranian (Persian) shops, selling a variety of Iranian,
Turkish and Lebanese products. Iranian restaurants are one of the main
gateways to employment for Iranian refugees with low English language
skills. Because of this, these migrants find it difficult to gain employment
outside these communities and they lack social capital. These areas are
not home to many doctors, dentists and academics, however. I could not
find my participants in these locations. Highly skilled migrants with mid-
dle-class salaries tend to live in predominantly white, suburban areas sep-
arated from Iranian and other migrant communities and council estates.
In studies carried out with Iranians living outside Iran, it is known to be
difficult to access Iranians precisely because of this reason: namely, their
sporadic settlement and lack of interest in congregating in one geograph-
ical area (Higgins 2005). Not many Iranians lived in the areas in which I
resided throughout all the years that it took me to write this book.
Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select women who:
(1) were physicians or dentists or held a Ph.D. degree9; (2) had emi-
grated to Britain with the status of immigrant and/or refugee within the
last thirty years (after the Islamic Revolution in 1979); and (3) considered
themselves to be Iranian.10 Snowball sampling is a viable option for research
with Iranians, as networks of trust are essential to get them participate in
studies (Higgins 2005; Khavarpour and Rissel 1997; Lindert et al. 2008).
I tried to expand my networks within and through my pre-existing connec-
tions to meet as many potential respondents as possible. I received numer-
ous rejections because of the relatively small community I was addressing
but, more importantly, I was seen as someone who might spread private
details about people’s lives to others in the diaspora who might know them.
This sense of distrust prevails among many Iranian communities.
I contacted the British General Medical Council (GMC), and, using
the Medical Register 2009, compiled a list of names and contact details of
female Iranian doctors who were working at the time in Britain. Needless
to say, this was a time-consuming process. It is probable that I did not rec-
ognise some entries due to people changing their names, and possible that
not all those I identified through their name would identify themselves
 1 CLASS, INTERSECTIONALITY AND IRANIAN DIASPORA 11

as Iranian.11 I also became involved with the Iranian Medical Society

(IMS) in London, whose president promised to introduce me to those
doctors who were members of the society; however, their emails to them
did not produce any responses. I decided that it was important to meet
people in order to convince them to participate (Higgins 2005). I also
attended every seminar, conference, event, concert, exhibition and film
screening where I thought I could meet and interact with more Iranian
people. Attending these events by themselves was not enough to gain peo-
ple’s confidence, and these events also did not produce any participants for
me.12 On occasions when I had no personal introduction, I did not usually
get a positive response from people I asked to participate in the research.
It has been found that highly-educated middle-class Iranian immi-
grants in the United States in the 1970s did not take social science
research seriously (Ansari 1977), and my experience forty years later has
been similar. I have been treated with disdain for my involvement in the
social sciences, both within my family and outside. I have found that
amongst Iranian medical professionals and those from a scientific back-
ground, social science research is not held in regard.13
This book is based on narrative interviews with 22 first-generation
migrant women, aged between 30 and 50 at the time of the interviews
in 2009–2010 and in 2012–2015. As I am younger than most of the
women I interviewed,14 I did not have the same knowledge of issues
relating to Iranian and British society. I believe that the experiences of
this group of women are important in the construction of the identi-
ties of younger women who were born during or after the revolution.
Plummer (2001, p. 128, emphasis in original) argues that locating peo-
ple in generational cohorts ‘is a more subjective sense that people acquire
of belonging to a particular age reference group through which they
may make sense of their memories and identities’. In choosing this spe-
cific group of women, then, I am aware of the importance of their nar-
ratives and how their lives have been shaped through different historical
moments. It was in the actual interviews and through the direct contact
I had with the women that the praxis of generational difference became
clearer. I realised how differently I was positioned in relation to the older
women in this group. The issue of generations, particularly the ways in
which they perceived me as a younger researcher in need of ‘help’, was
part of my analysis of their narratives.
Throughout this book, pseudonyms are used instead of real names,
and all identifying information such as the number of children they had,
their gender, etc. have been changed. Part of my ethical assurance in
12 M. Fathi

both studies was that the names of the cities where my participants lived
would not be revealed, hence these are also deleted from the narratives
and stories presented here.

1.5  Religion, an Absent Theme in Class Stories

Most of the research carried out on Muslim populations in the West,15
especially in the UK, has focused on South Asian populations such as
Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (Afshar et al. 2006; Brah 1992;
Moghissi 2006; Modood 1989, 1992; Moghissi et al. 2009, to name
a few). Iranians in Britain are not identified as a separate group and
come under the category of ‘other’ in national surveys such as
the census (Spellman 2004); however, research studies conducted
with Iranians outside Iran count them as Muslim (McCloud 2006;
Moghissi et al. 2009). All these cause some contradictions among
Iranians outside Iran in defining themselves in the West. It would be
wrong to assume that women of Muslim origin living in the diaspora
can all fit neatly into specific categories such as ‘Muslim’ or ‘Iranian’
(see Moghissi 1999, 2006) because many Iranian women who
live outside Iran are not practising Muslims (Gholami 2016).
Iran is an Islamic country and Iranians’ lives are shaped to varying
degrees by religion (Shahidian 1999). The effect of religion on people’s lives
is no less than that of other factors such as class, gender and race. Despite
the importance of religion in the formation of Iranian women’s identi-
ties, these 22 women, who were all born into Muslim families, hardly ever
referred to the notion of religion and its role in their lives whilst talking to
me. Consequently, this book does not address religion as an identity cat-
egory for social class; that is another project. As Yuval-Davis (2009) argues,
some intersections are more important in certain contexts than others; in
the current atmosphere, which places emphasis on Islam as a unitary identity
of migrants in Europe and presents them as problematic, perhaps religion is
seen as taking priority over class identities. I am particularly interested, how-
ever, in how those unexplored aspects of identities are changing within these
turbulent atmospheres. I have often been asked the question, ‘How can you
use Western-based theories to discuss Iranian subjects?’ My answer relates
to the above discussion—the development of theories and the application
of them to different contexts does not create binary divisions. As West and
non-West were constructed on the basis of power relations, capitalism and
other discourses, these theories can be applied similarly in different contexts.
Another random document with
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zusammengesetzt. Die Weltlichkeit der Mächtigen gebrauchte den
erwachenden bürgerlichen Freiheitssinn zu ihren Zwecken; und das
bürgerliche Genie diente noch der Autorität. Darum fehlt die höchste
Selbstverständlichkeit, die letzte Einheit; darum wurde dieser Stil
auch in der Folge so gründlich mißverstanden. Die Empfindung, die
das Barock geschaffen hatte, reichte nicht aus, um das
heraufkommende Zeitalter der bürgerlichen Selbständigkeit zu
regieren. Dazu bedurfte es noch einer anderen Eigenschaft: der
Bildung — einer alle einzelnen befreienden, revolutionierenden und
arbeitstüchtig machenden Bildung. Als sich diese Bildung dann aber
am Anfang des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts ausbreitete, erstickte sie
das künstlerische Temperament, ließ sie nicht Raum für naives
Formgefühl. Die Folge war, daß das Wissen um die griechische
Form aushelfen mußte, daß die lateinische Sprache auch in der
Kunst gewissermaßen zur europäischen Gelehrtensprache wurde.
Die Menschen brauchten Ruhe, um den ungeheuren Lehrstoff der
Zeit verarbeiten zu können. Darum konstruierten sie sich ein
beruhigendes Vollkommenheitsideal und folgten ihm als Nachahmer.
Doch davon ist im ersten Kapitel, wo die Lehre vom Ideal
untersucht wurde, schon die Rede gewesen.
* *
*
Die letzte Manifestation des gotischen Geistes fällt in die zweite
Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Sie ist sehr merkwürdig und
psychologisch folgendermaßen zu erklären.
Die absichtsvoll geförderte moderne Bildung mit ihrer einseitigen
Geistesdisziplin hat das kritische Vermögen stark entwickelt, hat
zugleich aber auch die intuitiven Fähigkeiten verkümmern lassen.
Der empirisch vorgehende Verstand hat alle Erscheinungen des
Lebens zergliedert, hat sie wissenschaftlich erklärt und nur das
Beweisbare gelten lassen; die ganze Natur ist mechanisiert worden,
bis sie vor dem Geist der Bildungshungrigen dastand wie ein
berechenbares Produkt von Ursachen und Wirkungen, von „Kraft
und Stoff“. Es sind im neunzehnten Jahrhundert große Fortschritte in
der Erkenntnis dessen gemacht worden, was sich reflektiv
bewältigen läßt; erkauft sind diese Fortschritte aber durch eine
radikale Entgötterung. Welt und Leben sind ihres Geheimnisses
beraubt worden, sie hörten für die einseitig Intellektuellen auf, das
große Wunder zu sein. Die Folge davon war, daß mehr und mehr,
trotz des Stolzes auf die neuen Errungenschaften, die Stimmung
einer tiefen Verzweiflung um sich griff. In dem Maße, wie die Welt in
ihren kausalen Zusammenhängen scheinbar verständlicher wurde,
wuchs auch der Pessimismus. Die Mystik des Lebens schien
unwiederbringlich verloren, der Glaube war im Tiefsten erschüttert;
jedermann meinte hochmütig dem Schöpfer in die Werkstatt sehen
zu können; und der Mensch ist ja nun einmal so geartet, daß er nicht
länger verehrt, was er zu fassen imstande ist, weil er die eigene
Beschränktheit zu genau aus dem ständigen Verkehr mit sich selber
kennt. Während das Gehirn triumphierte, wurde die Seele elend.
Langsam spürten die Menschen, daß ihnen ein innerer Schatz
abhanden gekommen war, daß sie unvermerkt zu Fatalisten
geworden waren. Das Vertrauen auf sittliche Endziele des Lebens
ging verloren, und von den Gipfeln exakter wissenschaftlicher
Wahrheiten starrte der Bildungsmensch in das absolute Nichts.
Als dieser Zustand gefährlich zu werden drohte, hat der
menschliche Geist wieder einmal aus eigener Kraft ein Heilmittel, hat
er etwas wie ein geistiges Serum produziert. Es gelang ihm, wie es
ihm im Verlaufe der Geschichte schon unzählige Male gelungen ist,
die Schwäche in eine Kraft zu verwandeln, aus der lähmenden
Passivität der Seele eine neue Aktivität, aus dem Leiden eine neue
Willenskraft zu gewinnen. Als der Mensch verzweifelt in die von
seinem eigenen Verstand entgötterte Welt starrte, begab es sich,
daß sich in einer neuen Weise das große Erstaunen wieder
einstellte. Zuerst war es nur ein Erstaunen über die grausame
Phantastik der Situation, über die Kälte der Lebensatmosphäre,
dann aber wurde wahrgenommen, wie eben in dieser Gefühllosigkeit
des Lebens eine gewisse Größe liegt, daß im Zentrum dieser eisigen
Gleichgültigkeit eine Idee gefunden wird, von der aus die ganze Welt
neu begriffen werden kann. Das neue Wundern, das über den
Menschen kam, richtete sich nun nicht mehr auf das Einzelne der
Natur, denn dieses glaubte man ja ursächlich verstehen zu können,
sondern es richtete sich auf das Ganze, auf das kosmische Spiel der
Kräfte, auf das Dasein von Welt und Leben überhaupt. Mit diesem
sich erneuernden philosophischen Erstaunen aber tauchten zugleich
merkwürdige Urgefühle auf, Empfindungen von urweltlicher Färbung.
Ein neues Bangen und Grauen stellte sich ein, eine tragische
Ergriffenheit. Hinter der vom Verstand entgötterten Welt erschien
eine neue große Schicksalsgewalt, eine andere, namenlose Gottheit:
die Notwendigkeit. Und als diese erst gefühlt wurde, da stellte sich
auch gleich eine neue Romantik ein. Die Einbildungskraft trat nun
hinzu und begann die Erscheinungen mit den Farben wechselnder
Stimmung zu umkleiden. Alle zurückgehaltenen Empfindungen
brachen hervor und nahmen teil an der neuen, aus einer Entseelung
erwachsenen Beseelung der Welt. Auf dem höchsten Punkt hat sich
das analytische Denken von selbst überschlagen und hat der
Synthese Platz gemacht, das Verstehen ist einem neuen Erleben
gewichen.
Die Kunst aber ist recht eigentlich das Gebiet geworden, auf dem
dieses moderne Welterlebnis sich dargestellt hat. Wie neben der
einseitigen Bildungskultur, neben der Verehrung der Erfahrung als
Höchstes der Eklektizismus, die Nachahmungssucht, die
Unselbständigkeit und ein falscher Idealismus einhergegangen sind,
wie alle Künstler dieser Geistesart mehr oder weniger zur Sterilität
verdammt gewesen sind, so ist von dem neuen großen Erlebnis des
Gefühls, von dem produktiv machenden philosophischen Erstaunen
eine eigene optische Sehform abgeleitet worden. Diese Sehform,
aus der ein moderner Kunststil hervorgegangen ist und die in
wenigen Jahrzehnten in großen Teilen Europas zur Herrschaft
emporgestiegen ist, wird in der Malerei Impressionismus genannt.
Die Sehform entspricht genau einer Form des Geistes; dieses
moderne Geistige aber ist seiner seelischen Beschaffenheit nach
gotischer Art. Der Impressionismus ist die letzte Form des gotischen
Geistes, die bisher historisch erkennbar wird. Gotisch ist der
Impressionismus, weil auch er das Produkt eines erregten
Weltgefühls ist, weil ein Wille darin Form gewinnt, weil die Form aus
einem Kampf entspringt, weil er in die Erscheinungen die seelische
Unruhe des Menschen hineinträgt und weil er die künstlerische
Umschreibung eines leidenden Zustandes ist. Alles im
Impressionismus ist auf Ausdruck, auf Stimmung gestellt; die
Darstellung des Atmosphärischen ist nur ein Mittel, Einheitlichkeit
und Stimmung zu gewinnen; dieser Stil ist neuerungslustig,
revolutionär und hat von vornherein im heftigen Kampf mit leblos
gewordenen Traditionen gestanden. Auch im Impressionismus hat
die Kunst wieder protestiert und geistig vertiefend gewirkt. Sie hat
den Blick von der griechischen Normalschönheit der Klassizisten
heftig abgelenkt. Zudem handelt es sich um eine ganz bürgerliche
Kunst, um eine Offenbarung des Laiengenies. Diese neue Sehform
geht nicht dem Häßlichen aus dem Wege, sondern sie hat das sozial
Groteske geradezu aufgesucht; sie ist naturalistisch und romantisch
in einem, sie spürt im Unscheinbaren das Monumentale auf und im
Besonderen das Kosmische. Der einfache Entschluß zu neuer
Ursprünglichkeit hat eine moderne Formenwelt geschaffen, der
Wille, die Erscheinungen als Eindruck naiv wirken zu lassen, hat
einen Stil gezeitigt, in dem der Geist des Jahrhunderts sich
abspiegelt.
Auch in der Baukunst ist dem Klassizismus und
Renaissancismus des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts eine neue Gotik
gefolgt. Sie äußert sich in dem Interesse für groß begriffene und
symbolhaft gesteigerte Zweckbauten, die den Zug zum
Weltwirtschaftlichen, der unserer Zeit eigen ist, verkörpern; sie
äußert sich in einer neuen Neigung zum Kolossalen, Konstruktiven
und Naturalistischen, in der entschiedenen Betonung des Vertikalen
und der ungebrochenen nackten Formen. Gotisch ist das
Ingenieurhafte der neuen Baukunst. Und wo sich die Architekten um
rein darstellende Formen bemühen, um Ornamente und
motivierende Zierformen, da geraten sie wie von selbst in eine
heftige Bewegungslust, sie kultivieren die abstrakte Form und das
Ausdrucksornament. Die Linienempfindung weist unmittelbar oft
hinüber zum Mittelalter und zum Barock, ohne daß man aber von
Nachahmung oder nur von Wahltradition sprechen dürfte. Das am
meisten Revolutionäre ist immer auch das am meisten Gotische.
Und die profanen Zweckbauten nehmen, wo sie ins Monumentale
geraten, wie von selbst oft Formen an, daß man an
Fortifikationsbauten des Mittelalters denkt. Ein unruhiger Drang nach
Mächtigkeit, der die ganze Welt erfüllt, gewinnt in den
Speicherbauten, Geschäftshäusern und Wolkenkratzern, in den
Industriebauten, Bahnhöfen und Brücken Gestalt; in den rauhen
Zweckformen ist das Pathos des Leidens, ist gotischer Geist.
Überall freilich ist die neue gotische Form auch innig verbunden
mit der griechischen Form. Denn das Griechische kann, nachdem es
einmal in Europa heimisch geworden ist, nie wieder vergessen und
ganz aufgegeben werden; immer wird es irgendwie Anteil behalten
und gegenwärtig sein. Denn es enthält Lösungen, die sich dem
menschlichen Geiste um ihrer Allgemeingültigkeit willen aufs tiefste
eingeprägt haben. Es wird unmöglich sein, die griechische Form
jemals wieder ganz aus der europäischen Kunst zu entfernen. Jede
neue Manifestation des gotischen Geistes wird auf Mischstile
hinauslaufen. Entscheidend wird es für diese Mischstile aber sein,
wo der Nachdruck liegt, ob die Gesinnung mehr der griechischen
Ordnung oder dem gotischen Ausdruckswillen zuneigt. Daß auch die
ihrer Herkunft nach griechische Form im Sinne einer gotischen
Gesamtstimmung benutzt werden kann, hat dieser flüchtige Gang
durch die Geschichte bewiesen. Er beweist auch, daß der Geist der
Gotik unendlich verwandlungsfähig ist, daß er in immer neue
Formen zu schlüpfen vermag und doch stets er selbst bleibt, daß er
immer und überall bildend am Werk sein wird, wo der Willensimpuls
einer Zeit, eines Volkes oder eines schöpferischen Individuums sich
unmittelbar in Kunstformen verwandelt.
 IV. Schlußwort

Ich begnüge mich mit diesen Anmerkungen über die

Stilbewegungen des gotischen Geistes und mache mit Bewußtsein
dort halt, wo die Kunst von den Lebenden nicht mehr historisch
gewertet werden kann. Ich vermeide es, von der neuesten Kunst zu
sprechen und von dem, was darin wieder auf eine Form des
gotischen Geistes hinzuweisen scheint; ich vermeide es, das Wort
„Gotik“ zum Schlagwort eines Programms zu machen und mit
Forderungen als ein Führer zu neuen Zielen des gotischen Geistes
hervorzutreten. Jedes hat seine Zeit und seinen Platz. Man kann als
ein heftig Wollender vor sein Volk hintreten, kann ihm neue Ziele
weisen, die man als segensreich erkannt hat, und kann die Besten
zur schöpferischen Unruhe, zu neuen Elementargefühlen
aufzuwiegeln suchen. Oder man kann, wie es in diesem Buch
versucht worden ist, rein der Erkenntnis folgen, kann versuchen, im
höchsten Sinn sachlich zu sein und naturgeschichtlich zu forschen,
wie die künstlerisch bildende Kraft des Menschen beschaffen ist.
Aber man kann nicht beides zugleich tun. Es versteht sich, daß der
heftig Wollende nicht seine Erkenntniskraft unterdrücken kann und
soll und daß der Erkennende nicht aufhören kann, einen
persönlichen Willen zu haben. Die Betonung muß aber dort auf dem
Willen, hier auf der Erkenntnis liegen, wenn nicht eine heillose
Verwirrung aller Begriffe die Folge sein soll.
Von dieser Verwirrung haben wir genug gesehen, haben wir
übergenug noch heute vor Augen. Die unendliche Unordnung des
Formgefühls, die bezeichnend für das neunzehnte Jahrhundert ist,
kann auf eine solche Vermengung des Willens und der Erkenntnis
zurückgeführt werden. Die Kunstwissenschaft, die berufen ist, der
Erkenntnis allein zu dienen, hat geglaubt, sie müsse führen, müsse
dem Künstler, dem Volke das Ideal zeigen und ein Gesetz des
künstlerischen Schaffens aufstellen. Und die Kunst anderseits, die
ganz ein Kind des Willens ist, hat sich aufs Gebiet wissenschaftlicher
Erkenntnis begeben und hat dort ihre beste Kraft: die Sicherheit der
instinktiven Entscheidung und die Unbefangenheit eingebüßt.
Es muß endlich wieder begriffen werden, daß alle
Kunstwissenschaft, ob sie die Kunst nun historisch, formenkritisch
oder psychologisch untersucht, nur konstatieren darf. Sie kann nur
empirisch hinter der Produktion einhergehen und aus einer gewissen
Distanz anschauen. Die Kunstwissenschaft darf keinen Willen, keine
programmatische Absicht haben: sie hat Naturgeschichte zu treiben
und alle persönlichen Sympathien und Antipathien dem Objekt
unterzuordnen. Es ist so, wie es in dem Gedenkblatt Wundts auf Karl
Lamprecht heißt: „Vorauszusagen, was die Zukunft bringen wird, ist
nicht Sache des Kunsthistorikers, und ebensowenig fühlt er sich
gedrungen, für etwas Partei zu ergreifen, was sie bringen könnte
oder sollte.“ Darum darf der Kunsthistoriker nicht diese Form
ablehnen und jene bevorzugen. Paßt irgendeine geschichtlich
gewordene Kunstform in eine Kunsttheorie nicht hinein, so ist damit
nichts gegen die Kunstform bewiesen, sondern nur etwas für die
Enge der Theorie. Auch Formen der Natur können ja nicht abgelehnt
werden; Kunstformen aber sind mittelbare Naturformen. Für die
Kunstwissenschaft besteht das Ideal darin, jenem imaginären Punkt
außerhalb des irdischen Getriebes nahe zu kommen, von dem
Archimedes träumte. Es darf für sie keine Rücksichten, keine
Grenzen geben, das Leben, die Kunst müssen ihr zu einem
ungeheuren Ganzen werden, und jedes Stück Kunstgeschichte muß
sein wie der Ausschnitt einer Universalgeschichte der Kunst. Auch
der patriotische Standpunkt hat keine Geltung. Das Wunder, wie alle
Rassen, Völker und Individuen an dem ewigen Leben der Kunstform
beteiligt sind, ist zu groß, als daß es nationalistisch eingeengt
werden dürfte. Muß aber so der nationale Standpunkt aufgegeben
werden, das heißt, darf der wissenschaftlich Erkennende an dem
triebartigen Willen seiner Nation nicht einmal teilnehmen, um wieviel
weniger darf er da seinem kleinen persönlichen Willen, dem Trieb
seiner Natur folgen und ihn in scheinbar sachliche Argumente
ummünzen!
Ganz anders aber als der Kunstgelehrte steht der Künstler da. Er
bedarf keiner Kraft so sehr als des Willens. Er kann Neues nur
schaffen, kann die lebendige Form nur hervorbringen, wenn er sich
einseitig für bestimmte Empfindungsmassen entscheidet, wenn er
eine Wahl trifft und rücksichtslos ablehnt, was seinen Trieb zu
hemmen imstande ist. Der Künstler darf sich nicht nur für ein
bestimmtes Formideal entscheiden, sondern er muß es tun, er darf
nicht objektiv werden, sondern muß lieben und hassen. Es ist sein
Recht, unter Umständen seine Pflicht, ganze Stilperioden
abzulehnen, ja zu verachten; nämlich dann, wenn seine
Schöpfungskraft dadurch gewinnt. Er darf geschichtlich gewordene
Formen der Kunst für seine Zwecke ändern, aus ihrem organischen
Verband reißen und umgestalten, sofern sein Verfahren nur zu etwas
wertvoll Neuem führt. Auch darf er alle Mittel anwenden, um seine
Zeit mitzureißen. Lebt der Wissenschaftler von der Vergangenheit,
so zielt der Künstler in die Zukunft, geht jener empirisch vor, so
verfährt dieser intuitiv. Um neue Formen, einen neuen Stil zu
schaffen, muß er spontan sein bis zur Gewaltsamkeit; er kann als
Handelnder nicht, wie der betrachtende Gelehrte, Gewissen haben.
Die Wahl wird ihm zur Pflicht in dem Augenblick, wo er sich für
bestimmte Formen entscheidet; aus der Fülle der Möglichkeiten muß
er die eine Möglichkeit greifen, die ihm selbst, die seinem Volke,
seiner Zeit gemäß ist.
Möchten sich dieses unsere Kunstgelehrten ebensowohl wie
unsere Künstler endlich gesagt sein lassen. Möchten jene ihre
Hände von der Kunst des Tages lassen, die sie mit ihren Theorien
nur verwirren, und diese auf den Ehrgeiz, wissenschaftliche Kenner
des Alten zu sein, endgültig verzichten. Und möchten die
Kunstfreunde sich klar werden, daß sie wohl beim Künstler wie beim
Gelehrten stehen können, ja sogar abwechselnd bei diesem oder
jenem, daß sie es aber nicht zur selben Zeit mit beiden halten
können, ohne weiterhin Verwirrung zu stiften. Was uns not tut, sind
reinliche Abgrenzungen. Diese Mahnung steht nicht ohne Grund am
Schluß dieses Buches. Sie soll, soweit es möglich ist, verhindern,
daß dieser kurze Beitrag zu einer Naturgeschichte der Kunst
programmatisch ausgenutzt wird, daß sich auf ihn die berufen, die
im Gegensatz zum griechischen nun ein gotisches Ideal verkünden
möchten, und daß auch diese Arbeit mit zur Ursache wird, das Wort
„Gotik“ zum Modewort von morgen zu machen. Diese Gefahr droht
seit einiger Zeit. Man spricht vom gotischen Menschen, von der
gotischen Form, ohne sich immer etwas Bestimmtes dabei
vorzustellen. So sehr ich selbst als wollender Deutscher, als triebhaft
empfindendes Individuum für die Zukunft mit jenen Kräften in
Deutschland, ja in Europa rechne, die vom Geiste der Gotik gespeist
werden, so sehr empfinde ich auch die Gefahr, die darin liegt, wenn
dem Worte „gotisch“ allgemeiner Kurswert zuteil wird. Das Wort
könnte dem Gedanken schaden, ja könnte ihn in falsche Bahnen
lenken. Wenn der Geist der Gotik sich in den kommenden
Jahrzehnten wieder eigentümlich manifestieren will, so ist es am
besten, das Wort „Gotik“ wird als Programmwort überhaupt nicht
genannt. Im stilgeschichtlichen Sinne wird das Neue um so
ungotischer aussehen, je gotischer es dem innersten Wesen nach
ist. Soll schon ein Programm verkündet werden, so kann es nur
dieses sein: Klarheit über das Vergangene gewinnen, mit eisernem
Willen, das eigene Lebensgefühl zu formen, in die Zukunft gehen
und, weder dort noch hier, sich vom Wort, vom Begriff tyrannisieren
lassen!

Druck der Spamerschen Buchdruckerei in Leipzig.

 Fußnoten:
[1] Auch der alte Streit, wie im Drama die Zeit begriffen werden
soll, ist nicht zu lösen, wenn man die eine Art richtig und die
andere falsch nennt. Auch hier handelt es sich um dieselben
beiden Stilprinzipien. Denn es herrscht der große, naturgewollte
Dualismus der Form nicht nur in den bildenden Künsten, er ist
vielmehr auch in den Künsten der Zeit nachzuweisen. Und
naturgemäß hängen von dem Stilprinzip auch in der Dichtung und
in der Musik alle Einzelformen ab. Der Dramatiker, der im Sinne
des griechischen Menschen die Einheit des Raumes und der Zeit
als Grundsatz anerkennt, wird von diesem Prinzip aus sein
Drama im Ganzen und in allen Teilen aufbauen müssen; seine
Handlung wird durch den Zeitsinn ein besonderes Tempo, eine
bestimmte Gliederung, eine eigene Motivation erhalten, sie wird
ganz von selbst zur Konzentration, zur Typisierung und zur
Idealisierung neigen. Wogegen das Zeitgefühl, wie es zum
Beispiel in den Dramen Shakespeares so charakteristisch zum
Ausdruck kommt, die Handlung auflockern muß; es muß die
Handlung weniger dramatisch und mehr lyrisch und romantisch-
episch machen, dafür aber auch mehr theatralisch wirksam —
mehr sensationell in ihrer psychologischen Sprunghaftigkeit. Es
gibt ein Drama des gotischen, des barocken Geistes (seine
Entwicklungslinie ist von den alten christlichen Mysterienspielen
bis zur Shakespearebühne und weiter bis zur Romantik zu
verfolgen), und es gibt eines des griechischen Geistes, beide
Formen aber sind — unterschieden bis in die
Temperamentsfärbungen der Verse sogar — in ihrer Art
notwendig, beide können klassisch sein, weil es zwei Arten von
künstlerischem Zeitgefühl gibt. Es ließen sich überhaupt die
beiden Formenwelten in allen Künsten nachweisen — auch in der
Musik —; man könnte, von dem fundamentalen Gegensatz
ausgehend, eine Naturgeschichte der ganzen Kunst schreiben.
[2] Die Entwicklung drückt sich formal etwa so aus, wie Heinrich
Wölfflin es in seinem Buch „Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe“
dargelegt hat. Wölfflin hat, als vorsichtiger Historiker, der keinen
Schritt tut, bevor er den Boden untersucht hat, der seine Theorie
tragen soll, den Weg vom einzelnen Kunstwerk aus gewählt. Er
hat in seinem Buch die Formen und Formwandlungen des
sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhunderts untersucht; dem
Leser überläßt er es, von den gewonnenen Erkenntnissen auf
das Ganze zu schließen. Seine Feststellungen lassen sich im
wesentlichen als allgemeingültig bezeichnen. Um die
Metamorphosen innerhalb eines Stils zu bezeichnen, hat er fünf
Begriffspaare gebildet, die sich folgendermaßen
gegenüberstehen: 1. das Lineare und das Malerische, 2. das
Flächenhafte und das Tiefenhafte, 3. die geschlossene und die
offene Form, 4. Vielheit und Einheit, 5. absolute Klarheit und
relative Klarheit. Mit diesen Gegensätzen läßt sich in der Tat
operieren. Doch könnte man vielleicht noch den viel zu wenig
bisher beachteten Gegensatz der warmen und der kalten Farben
hinzufügen. Wölfflin spricht nur von den formalen Wandlungen,
die sich vollziehen, wenn ein Stil aus seinem zweiten Stadium in
sein drittes eintritt. Nicht weniger bedeutungsvoll sind die
Wandlungen, die zwischen der ersten und zweiten Periode vor
sich gehen.
[3] Italien. Tagebuch einer Reise. Mit 118 ganzseitigen
Bildertafeln. 4. bis 6. Tausend (Leipzig 1916).
1. Höhlenmalerei, Bison. Altamira (Spanien)
2. Negerplastik, Tanzmaske. Aus Karl Einsteins
„Negerplastik“, Verlag der Weißen Bücher
3. Pyramide von Dashoor, um 3000 vor Chr.
4. Sphinx vor der Chefren-Pyramide, um 2800 vor Chr.
5. Die Memnonssäulen bei Theben in Ägypten, um 1500 vor Chr.
6. Säulensaal, Luxor, Ägypten, um 1400 vor Chr.
7. Löwenjagd, Relief, assyrisch. 7. Jahrhundert vor Chr.
8. König Assur-Bani-pal auf der Löwenjagd, Relief, assyrisch. 7.
Jahrhundert vor Chr. Aus „Der Schöne Mensch im Altertum“ von
Heinr. Bulle (G. Hirths Verlag)