Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Barbara Bates Center, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:00pm
Location: Room 2019, Floor 2U, Claire Fagin Hall
Abstract: Birthing babies seems a mundane event. Yet even a cursory review of the history of maternity in Iran reveals the controversial culture of birthing. What women and men understood about reproduction shaped their choices about the type of care to seek during childbirth. Although specific rituals related to childbirth differed in form and spirit, and often changed with the times, their existence showed a desire to protect women in labor from some of the unknown dangers of childbirth and to assume control over a mystifying and momentous event in people’s lives. The accumulation of knowledge about procreation in Iran altered men’s relationships to female bodies and transformed maternal healthcare and nursing.