Missing Mum : Reframing Imprisoned Childhoods in Autobiography and Activism in the Iranian Context
Mousavi, Nafiseh LU
(2025)
In Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
p.81-103
- Abstract
- This chapter studies the entanglements of autobiographical writing with activism in the work of Hamed Farmand (1976–), an Iranian child rights activist who lives in the diaspora. Farmand spent five years of his childhood in 1980s Iran without his mother, who was a political prisoner during this period. As an adult, he began reflecting on this experience and writing about his life across different media, which gradually led him to become a child rights activist with a specific focus on the children of imprisoned parents. Farmand’s work, and its rootedness in lived experience, is of special importance in the Iranian context, where most types of activism are criminalised and many children endure the hardships of a tense political atmosphere.... (More)
- This chapter studies the entanglements of autobiographical writing with activism in the work of Hamed Farmand (1976–), an Iranian child rights activist who lives in the diaspora. Farmand spent five years of his childhood in 1980s Iran without his mother, who was a political prisoner during this period. As an adult, he began reflecting on this experience and writing about his life across different media, which gradually led him to become a child rights activist with a specific focus on the children of imprisoned parents. Farmand’s work, and its rootedness in lived experience, is of special importance in the Iranian context, where most types of activism are criminalised and many children endure the hardships of a tense political atmosphere. This chapter maps out Farmand’s trajectory from autobiographical writing to activism and demonstrates how, in his case, the formation of a child subject through continuous autobiographical practice has created a foundation for activism. Farmand’s case, as the chapter argues, exemplifies a productive practice of reframing a traumatic past into future-oriented activism by way of autobiographical practices. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a99a53c2-769a-4591-99bf-17203c8e4457
- author
- Mousavi, Nafiseh
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Autobiography, Activism, Children's rights, Imprisonment, Iran
- host publication
- Remembering Contentious Lives
- series title
- Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
- editor
- Erbil, Duygu ; Rigney, Ann and Vlessing, Clara
- pages
- 23 pages
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85215078001
- ISSN
- 2634-6257
- 2634-6265
- ISBN
- 978-3-031-73449-6
- 978-3-031-73452-6
- 978-3-031-73450-2
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-031-73450-2_4
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a99a53c2-769a-4591-99bf-17203c8e4457
- date added to LUP
- 2024-10-18 13:36:14
- date last changed
- 2025-07-07 15:36:58
@inbook{a99a53c2-769a-4591-99bf-17203c8e4457,
abstract = {{This chapter studies the entanglements of autobiographical writing with activism in the work of Hamed Farmand (1976–), an Iranian child rights activist who lives in the diaspora. Farmand spent five years of his childhood in 1980s Iran without his mother, who was a political prisoner during this period. As an adult, he began reflecting on this experience and writing about his life across different media, which gradually led him to become a child rights activist with a specific focus on the children of imprisoned parents. Farmand’s work, and its rootedness in lived experience, is of special importance in the Iranian context, where most types of activism are criminalised and many children endure the hardships of a tense political atmosphere. This chapter maps out Farmand’s trajectory from autobiographical writing to activism and demonstrates how, in his case, the formation of a child subject through continuous autobiographical practice has created a foundation for activism. Farmand’s case, as the chapter argues, exemplifies a productive practice of reframing a traumatic past into future-oriented activism by way of autobiographical practices.}},
author = {{Mousavi, Nafiseh}},
booktitle = {{Remembering Contentious Lives}},
editor = {{Erbil, Duygu and Rigney, Ann and Vlessing, Clara}},
isbn = {{978-3-031-73449-6}},
issn = {{2634-6257}},
keywords = {{Autobiography; Activism; Children's rights; Imprisonment; Iran}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{81--103}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
series = {{Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies}},
title = {{Missing Mum : Reframing Imprisoned Childhoods in Autobiography and Activism in the Iranian Context}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73450-2_4}},
doi = {{10.1007/978-3-031-73450-2_4}},
year = {{2025}},
}