Form and Forces of Open Kitchens: The Secularization of Beauty and Private Space in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Abstract

The 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran has over time increasingly faced unpredicted ideological failures. In addition to a number of internal and external factors, the materiality of domestic spaces has prominently contributed to this situation. As the most pervasive cultural change in post-revolutionary Iranian society, open kitchens specifically provided a unique space in the forefront of homes to challenge the imposed ideas of Islamization. In ten to fifteen years, all homeowners across the country started to rebuild or renovate their kitchens according to this new open kitchen plan. This paper’s central goal is to recognize Iranian new kitchens as influential, ideological, and political spaces. Thus, the author tries to treat them not merely as amalgamation of furnishings and layout, but more as animated things with the force and capacity to affect and to be affected. The study also explores how the form and forces of new kitchens influence the process of the secularization of everyday life and women’s empowerment. Also explored is how the project of Islamization and its components such as anti-Imperialism, gender speculation, and concealment have been affected by the technology and materiality.