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“My Body Is Broken Like My Country”: Identity, Nation, and Repatriation among Afghan Refugees in Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Diane Tober
Diane Tober*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Francisco Institute for Health and Aging
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Abstract

Iran has one of the world's largest refugee populations, comprised primarily of Afghans and Iraqi Kurds.1 As of 2001, there were approximately 2.5 million Afghan refugees living in Iran. About 1.8 million of those were documented and the rest undocumented. With aggressive repatriation efforts under the supervision of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Afghan population in Iran in 2004 dropped to around one million documented and another 500,000 undocumented migrant workers.2 Based on ethnographic research among Afghans and low-income Iranians in urban and rural Isfahan, this paper examines how Afghans who access Iran's health services interpret health and family planning education in the face of Iran's repatriation efforts and increased social tension. Further, I investigate divergent views toward Afghan repatriation and notions of home, self, and identity. Ultimately, this paper addresses the various borders—physical, national, ethnic, religious, gendered, urban/rural—and how these borders can be redefined through the refugee experience, leaving hope for the future.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 263 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2007

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Footnotes

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0220594, the University of California, San Francisco Academic Senate, and the American Association of Iranian Studies.

I am extremely grateful for their generous support. Special thanks to the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences for their assistance in inviting and coordinating this work, especially, Dr. Mohammad Jalali and Dr. Mohammad Taghdisi, and to Dr. Zargarzadeh and Mr. Moradmand for the official invitation. Deep gratitude is also extended to all the people who agreed to help coordinate and/or participate in this research. Any opinions, findings or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or other organizations or institutions that facilitated this work.

References

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4 Special thanks to Seyyed Shahabedin Mesbahi and Sepideh Mazloumi for their assistance on this project, as both transcribers and research assistants.

5 For more on Afghan labor migration see Monsutti, Alessandro, “Migration as a Rite of Passage: Young Afghans Building Masculinity and Adulthood in Iran,” Iranian Studies 40, no. 2 (April 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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20 A derogatory term, meaning infidel, used for non-Muslims or Muslims of a different sect.

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