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61–79.Mina RocesIran and AfghanistanDomesticity is a social, cultural, and historical
construction with multiple layers of meaning, in-
cluding a type of space, a kind of work (paid or
unpaid), and a relationship of power or organization
(Hansen 1992). Constructions of domesticity in Iran
and Afghanistan in the mid-nineteenth century to
the present were shaped by broad economic devel-
opments and social and cultural practices, such as
urbanization, the emergence of a middle class, state-
building, and nationalist and missionary ideologies.
Differences among women based on ethnic and
tribal group, region, social class, mode of subsis-
tence, and family make it difficult to generalize
about domesticity in relation to gender roles, iden-
tities, and ideologies. For example, in Afghanistan
among the nomadic pastoralist Durrani Pashtuns,
women are responsible for milking the animals and
weaving the tent awnings, whereas among the
Ghilzai Pashtuns men handle such tasks. Many
women in Iran and Afghanistan work in agricul-
tural production and make goods and crafts at
home for sale in markets and private households. In
many rural and poor urban families, children do
the household work and caring for younger siblings
and the flock. However, even though women per-
form important economic roles in both the house-
hold and larger society, throughout history they
were defined primarily as wives, mothers, and the
carers of children. In addition, a division of labor
existed whereby women were confined to domestic
activities, while the economic and political deci-
sions outside the domestic sphere belonged to men.
Domesticity has served as an index of class. In the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Iran and134 domesticity
Afghanistan, a steady supply of domestic servants
and relatives among people of means made up for
the lack of modern household technology and
amenities. This is still the case in Afghanistan today.
Thus, some wealthy Iranian and Afghan women had
an identity beyond what was defined by domesticity
in that they enjoyed more leisure and recreational
time and could entertain family and friends and par-
take in charitable, philanthropic, and political
events. This strengthened their identity as actors in
the public arena. Similar factors also allowed other
poorer and middle-class women to utilize their
domestic skills in commercial enterprises, such as
embroidery or carpet-making.
Features of the patriarchal social structure were
more entrenched in Afghanistan due to the pre-
dominance of pastoral nomadism as a mode of
subsistence and the weaker role of the state in in-
stituting “modernizing” reforms. For example,
women’s reproductive roles were more fetishized in
the context of Afghanistan’s ethnic, tribal kinship-
based patriarchy in which women, labor, and land
were owned by males (Moghadam 1999, 175). In
contrast, even though the nomadic tribal popula-
tion in Iran was also sizeable, a larger urban, mid-
dle class emerged in the early to mid-twentieth
century.
In both Iran and Afghanistan, early twentieth-
century reforms sought to modernize the role and
status of women. Reza Shah Pahlavìof Iran (1925–
41) and King Amàn Allàh of Afghanistan (1919–29)
instituted reforms in education, marriage, and
dress. State-building projects that shaped domestic
ideologies were influenced by the development of
modern scientific thought that sought to rationalize
the home and create a new hierarchy of power
within it. Domesticity as a state project was a sym-
bol of modernization and social transformation of
the nation and its women. For projects of modern
state building, women frequently become markers
of political goals and cultural identity. Scientific
domesticity as a state project and ideology involved
disciplining and civilizing women. During the mod-
ernization periods of the early twentieth century
in Iran and Afghanistan, the unveiled woman
who was a household manager trained in the sci-
ence of domesticity and proper hygiene signified
modernity and progress. On the other hand, the
veiled woman lacking an education in scientific
domesticity symbolized backwardness and super-
stition. Women’s range of experiences and appear-
ance was defined by the cultural and political goals
of the state.