Bibliography: BIB34577

Key	BIB34577
Reference type	Journal Article
Title	Set in Stone : Homeless Corpses and Desecrated Graves in Modern Iran
Journal	International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge, Eng. ; New York)
Author	Amanat, Mehrdad
Year	2012
Date	May
Issue	2
Volume	44
Abstract	Violence toward corpses and graves, especially the unusual practice of exhuming and burning remains, persisted sporadically through the 20th century in Iran but found new dimensions in the form of mass graves and a systematic desecration of cemeteries in the period following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This paper seeks to explore the roots of cemetery violence by examining the dynamics of apostasy and the experiences and challenges Babi and Baha'i converts faced in their interment practices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This period witnessed a significant change in communal identities. Unconventional self-definitions expressed in religious conversions and in fluid or multiple communal affiliations and religious convictions defied traditional boundaries and led to tension between nonconformists and religious authorities. One way for Shi'i 'ulama' and Jewish rabbis to reassert a conventional center was through the control of cemeteries, including by not allowing converts to be buried in these semisacred spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
Language	English
Keywords	GRAVE; DESECRATION; IRAN; PERSECUTION
Pages	257–283
Legal note	11.
File attachments	internal-pdf://1273133252/Amanat_M - Set_In_Stone - IJMES.pdf