Women Who Play the World:
Gender, Culture, and the Role of Iranian Women in Preserving and Transmitting Folk Music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67280/ridaim.19Keywords:
Iranian women, Folk music, Cultural transmission, Digital mediation, EthnomusicologyAbstract
This study examines the role of Iranian women in the preservation and revitalization of folk music within a context shaped by socio-political constraints and digital transformation. Drawing on a qualitative research design supported by methodological triangulation, the study combines semi-structured questionnaires (N = 8), three in-depth interviews, and digital content analysis to examine how women sustain musical traditions across private, communal, and increasingly transnational spaces.
Findings indicate that women play a central role in the oral transmission of folk repertoires, particularly through domestic and community-based practices, while simultaneously navigating social, economic, and institutional barriers. Thematic analysis further reveals that engagement in folk music functions as artistic expression and as a form of cultural resilience and identity affirmation. Digital platforms emerge as ambivalent yet significant mediating structures, expanding visibility and circulation while reshaping traditional modes of transmission.
By situating women’s musical participation at the intersection of gender, cultural sustainability, and digital mediation, this study contributes a theoretically informed and contextually grounded perspective to ethnomusicology and gender studies, foregrounding both structural limitations and creative strategies of continuity and adaptation in contemporary Iranian folk music.
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