CHIC RESISTANCE

CHIC RESISTANCE

Women, Fashion, and Politics in Iran

My family fled Iran when I was less than a year old. Settling in Canada, the country would become home to thousands of Iranians who sought to flee the same social repression and political turmoil as my parents and relatives; a diaspora which was forced to create a sense of home for themselves outside of Iran. Restaurants, bakeries, and markets selling Persian goods and delicacies quickly opened up soon after the increase of migration of Iranians to Canada throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, which was followed by Persian music concerts, art shows, movie festivals, and Iranian language plays, even make-shift bazaar’s and festivals celebrating Norouz, the Persian new year. This establishment of Iranian culture, which has been successfully integrated into the multicultural streets of Toronto, Vancouver, and Montréal, now stands as a testament to the resilience and strength of first generation Iranian-Canadians in light of the trauma and violence of revolution, religious fundamentalism, war, forced migration, refugee status, welfare, racism, and leaving behind nearly everything they possessed and knew for a new life in a country thousands of miles away from the only life they had ever known...