Making Fatima’s Presence Visible: Embodied Practices, Shi‘i Aesthetics and Socio-Religious Transformations in Iran

This article examines the symbolic reenactment of the wedding of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and the first Shiʿi Imam. The power of the invisible figure of Fatima represents the virtues and norms of the household of the Prophet Muhammad, ahl al-bayt, and sets the parameters of sexual behavioral codes of social conduct. The article discusses the wider socio-politically and religiously gendered images articulated through Shiʿi aesthetics in Iran. It critically engages with concepts of representation and visuality and what meanings and roles the invisible presence of the saint’s spirit has on practitioners. The wedding ritual and its various stages and diverse practices are used to fulfil a religious and political role: The Prophet’s daughter is represented as the visual model of pious relationships and an icon for the kind of relationship forms young people should live in. Through using the materiality of representations, ʿulamāʾ in Iran are aiming to counter societal changes around sexual relationships and cohabitation practices which are used by youth to express political disobedience. By doing so, they attempt to promote a different understanding of religious and political identity in Iran by setting new parameters and boundaries between them.