Feeding Iran

"Rose Wellman’s exemplary study of everyday life in provincial Iran breathes new life into the perennially topical question of the sources of emotional resonance and moral legitimacy of kinship, religion, and the nation. The result is a luminous anthropological work that clarifies the mutual resonance and naturalizing potential resting between spaces of intimacy and state power."––Janet Carsten, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Edinburgh

"This is a vivid, engaging, and evocative ethnography of the cultural life of an inaccessible community, the Basiji families of Iran—people associated with institutional support of the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79 and the Islamic Republic as a kind of paramilitary force. Because they have been associated with political and religious extremism, they have not been taken seriously as a living community by many both inside and outside of Iran. Wellman humanizes them and provides a fascinating account of their rich symbolic and interpersonal lives."––William O. Beeman, author of The Great Satan vs. the Mad Mullahs: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other

"Conducting anthropological research in Iran these days presents great challenges; such an endeavor is taken on only by the strong-hearted and intrepid. Rose Wellman, among only a few, has accomplished an even greater task: she has gained the trust of Iranian regime supporters and helped us to better understand them and appreciate their reasons."––Mary Elaine Hegland, author of Days of Revolution: Political Unrest in an Iranian Village