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Sanitized Modernity: Rural Public Health in Mid-Twentieth Century Khuzestan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Bryan Sitzes Open the ORCID record for Bryan Sitzes [Opens in a new window]
Bryan Sitzes*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
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Abstract

Existing histories of public health in Iran often center on elite or urban narratives. This paper shifts the focus to Iran’s villages by examining the twentieth century public health history of rural northern Khuzestan. It argues that Khuzestani villagers desired, rather than resisted, modern medical services. However, vertical decision-making and the prioritization given by public health planners to economic concerns over social well-being led to the uneven distribution of services and failure to fulfill the expectations of Khuzestan’s villagers. This paper uses memoirs, official reports, correspondence, and other records from the Development & Resources Corporation, along with reports from Iran’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, to bring a richer picture of Iranian villagers’ twentieth century history into focus.

Keywords

Public HealthMedicineKhuzestanRural IranSchistosomiasisDevelopmentSanitation
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 1-2: Special Section: Medicine and Public Health in Modern Iran: Historical and Sociological Perspectives , March 2020 , pp. 43 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2019

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this article formed a chapter in my master’s thesis, “Alienating Iranians from their Environment: Irrigation, Flood Control, and Public Health in Late Pahlavi Khuzestan” (University of Texas at Austin, 2018). I sincerely thank Kamran Aghaie and Faegheh Shirazi for their help and comments at that stage. Another version was presented at the Middle Eastern Studies Association annual conference in San Antonio, Texas on 16 November 2018, at the panel “Science, Medicine, Oral Histories, and Progress in Qajar, Pahlavi and Revolutionary Iran.” I benefited greatly from the feedback and encouragement from the panel chair, Soha Bayoumi, my co-panelists, and the audience. Additionally, the feedback provided by anonymous journal reviewers, Indrani Chatterjee, Stephen Nix, David Rahimi, and Babak Tabarraee immensely improved its quality and I am grateful for their comments. I am responsible for any remaining defects. Lastly, this project would not have been possible without the knowledge and generosity of Dale Correa (UT Austin) and the staff at Princeton University’s Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library.

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