PhD Oral Exam - Mozhdeh Babagoli, Social and Cultural Analysis

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the transformation of gendered land relations in rural Iran over the past seven decades, with a particular focus on the Caspian provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran. It examines how state-led agrarian reforms, especially those implemented during the White Revolution (1962-1971), alongside more recent grassroots initiatives in the 2010s and early 2020s, have shaped women’s access to land, agricultural labour, and socio-economic visibility. Bridging historical analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and digital ethnography, the study draws on both archival data and intergenerational family narratives to trace the ways in which rural women have been systematically marginalized in formal land policy while also participating in and imagining more equitable, ecologically grounded alternatives. The research is grounded in ecofeminist, postcolonial feminist, and rural sociological frameworks. It critiques development paradigms that overlook the significance of subsistence labour and care work, and it exposes the gendered biases embedded in Iranian land entitlement and agrarian policy. The study also explores the contemporary back-to-the-land movement in northern Iran, largely led by urban-educated youth, as a site of both opportunity and tension. These mostly family-run ecological farms are examined for their potential to revalue care labour and promote more equitable gender and class dynamics, particularly as many turn to agritourism to support financial sustainability. While enhancing the financial sustainability of these small-scale economies, this strategy often entails the commodification of traditional rural life, including gendered roles and expectations rooted in cultural memory. Overall, this dissertation provides a contextualized understanding of how rural women navigate systemic constraints by situating rural transformations in Iran within broader global debates on land, gender, and environmental justice, as well as the exercise of agency and the articulation of alternative futures through everyday practices and shifting socio-political imaginaries.