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Abstract

This study explores the complex interplay of power, politics, and identity by examining the narratives of first-generation Iranian migrant women in British Columbia, Canada, within broader structures of global dominance. It examines how global power dynamics, historical inequalities, and domestic socio-cultural structures shape individuals’ and communities’ perceptions of identity and belonging. While existing scholarship has addressed diaspora Iranians’ identities, this study deepens the inquiry by situating belonging within intersecting systems of oppression. Drawing on frameworks of transnationalism and transnational feminism, the study traces how Iranian identity has been racialized due to the lasting effects of colonialism and global imperialism. It examines how geopolitical events, such as the 1979 Revolution and 9/11, have contributed to the essentialization of Muslim and Middle Eastern bodies. Through an anti-colonial lens, the study highlights how global power structures are implicated in the construction of Iranian identity as the “Other” and in shaping women’s experiences of belonging in diaspora. The study is a qualitative mixed-methods inquiry, encompassing online semi-structured interviews, group interviews, and arts-informed narrative inquiry. Twenty-four participants, including four community leaders, reflected on identity and belonging through personal experiences and community observations. The arts-informed component involved reflections on curated visual and textual artworks centered around migration and displacement. Participants narrated individual and collective experiences of settlement, including how they negotiated identity and belonging in the face of systemic and structural discrimination. Their narratives revealed the prevalence of precarity, which is closely tied to socio-economic, political, and cultural struggles rooted in multiple patriarchies and colonial hierarchies perpetuated through existing gender- and race-based biases. In this context, the concept of “contingent belonging” is introduced to describe the fluid and contradictory nature of belonging in diaspora experiences. Additionally, participants identified intra-community divisions stemming from religio-political tensions and class differences, further complicating the development of belonging and solidarity. The findings revealed that in response to racialized assumptions, many respondents internalized a “burden of proof.” A key response was what is termed here “strategic re/presentations,” an approach to resist stigma and reclaim a self-defined Iranian identity, even if it at times involves conforming to other essentialist constructs and narratives.