In the southeast shadow of Tehran, where the city’s heartbeat fades into the hum of agriculture and unpaved roads, lies Hesaramir. Its duality—a historic Upper Hesaramir and a migrant-built Turkabad—creates a kaleidoscope of lives, traditions, and struggles. Yet, the soul of this settlement is found in its women, whose voices, though often subdued, tell stories of resilience, complexity, and quiet defiance.
Hesaramir: Divided Yet Whole
Hesaramir rests 30 kilometers from Tehran, but it may as well be a world apart. Upper Hesaramir holds the roots of its long-time locals, while Lower Hesaramir, Turkabad, is a newer, rawer creation of migrant labor and necessity. For these migrants, Tehran’s promise proved elusive, and returning home was not an option. Here they remain, settlers of an in-between space, stitching their dreams and survival into the fabric of this growing community.
Years of research by Mahtab Hampaei, a young anthropology student, show how Hesaramir has moved beyond its transient beginnings. Families, once uprooted, have found a tenuous permanence. In this unassuming corner of the world, cultures intermingle, creating an identity that belongs neither fully to the past nor to the sprawling metropolis just beyond reach.
The Women Who Carry the World
Hampaei’s study finds the women of Hesaramir rooted in tradition yet reaching for agency. Many of them work not in the fields or factories but in spaces like beauty salons—hidden hubs of economic activity and social connection. These salons are sanctuaries where women can speak freely, vent frustrations, and strategize against the tides of poverty and cultural constraints.
Here, the walls hear stories of defiance as well as conformity. These women, daughters of a rigid cultural order, are taught early to bear the weight of family life. By ten years old, many are seasoned caretakers, trained to embody Hesaramir’s ideal of womanhood: wise, selfless, and burdened with the hopes of their kin.
And yet, within these roles lies a glimmer of quiet rebellion. When women gather to discuss their hardships or share knowledge about economic survival, they chip away at the rigid boundaries of their world. Hampaei paints a picture of women who are both shaped by and shaping their environment, embodying an intricate dance of submission and resistance.
The Politics of the Body
In Hesaramir, a woman’s body is not merely her own. It belongs to the land, to her family, to cultural expectations, and even to the state. Hampaei uncovers heartbreaking tales: women bearing child after child in pursuit of a son, enduring health risks to fulfill societal obligations. Government-provided contraceptives—accessible but not always safe—leave lasting scars on their bodies, both physical and emotional.
One woman’s struggle with repeated miscarriages due to hormonal contraceptives reflects a deeper reality: health in Hesaramir is often a gamble, with women bearing the brunt of a flawed system. Another, aged beyond her years from relentless pregnancies, personifies the silent toll of expectation. These stories are etched into the lines of their faces, their sacrifices woven into the fabric of Hesaramir’s survival.
Marriage and the Masks of Men
For many young girls, marriage is both destiny and deliverance. It is the culmination of years of preparation and a marker of societal success. Hampaei’s account of a 12-year-old eloping with a much older neighbor shocks but does not surprise. In Hesaramir, such unions are a breach of tradition that ultimately bends to its will. What begins in rebellion often ends in reluctant acceptance, the family sealing the union in a ceremony that erases its origins.
The women of Hesaramir harbor complex views of their male counterparts. Husbands are protectors and providers, yet they are also enforcers of control. This dichotomy forces women into a balancing act: respecting tradition while quietly steering their families. Hampaei captures the contradictions with care, showing women who uphold patriarchal norms even as they undermine them through everyday acts of agency.
Resistance Woven Into Survival
In a panel discussion accompanying Hampaei’s study, political economist Mohammad Maljoo expanded on the concept of agency among Iran’s urban poor. He described Hesaramir’s women as architects of “passive resistance.” In beauty salons and informal networks, they strategize and adapt, creating a form of survival that pushes against the oppressive conditions of their lives without outright defiance.
Maljoo notes, however, that this resistance remains fragmented. Iran’s systemic oppression stifles organized movements, leaving women to navigate their struggles in isolation. Without unions or collective leadership, grievances fester into uncoordinated protests that lack the momentum for lasting change. Yet, within this disjointed resistance lies a quiet determination, a stubborn hope that change is still possible.
Finding Humanity in the Margins
The lives of Hesaramir’s women are a mosaic of hardship, resilience, and aspiration. Hampaei’s research captures their complexity, refusing to reduce them to mere victims of circumstance. In their salons, homes, and streets, they craft lives of meaning and connection, even as systemic forces conspire against them.
To understand these women is to see beyond their struggles and into their humanity. It is to witness a quiet revolution where agency and adaptation coexist with tradition and submission. And it is to recognize that even in the harshest of conditions, hope lingers, waiting for the moment when it can rise into something more.
The struggles of women in Hesaramir, while deeply rooted in cultural and economic structures, are ultimately compounded by the systemic suppression of collective action. The barriers they face—poverty, rigid gender norms, and exploitative policies—are not insurmountable, yet the absence of organized resistance ensures their continuation. This absence is no accident; it is a deliberate outcome of oppressive governance that silences dissent and dismantles the tools of solidarity.
Without unions, associations, or even informal coalitions strong enough to challenge the status quo, grievances remain fragmented and isolated. In Hesaramir, women strategize in salons, they survive in silence, but they cannot transform their realities alone. Their potential for change is stifled by a regime that thrives on disunity, using censorship and repression to ensure that oppression remains systemic and self-perpetuating.
The women of Hesaramir embody resilience and agency in the face of these constraints, yet resilience is not a solution. Agency without collective power becomes a cycle of individual survival rather than a force for systemic change. The structural inequalities that shape their lives—mirrored across the country—cannot be dismantled by isolated acts of defiance. Until these women, and others like them, have the freedom and space to organize, the conditions of their oppression will remain intact, ensuring that the promise of equality remains out of reach.
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