An exploration into the acculturation experiences of female Iranians after their migration to Britain following the 1979 Iranian revolution

Abstract

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 caused great changes in the status of women in Iran. Many of these changes, together with the war with Iraq, resulted in life being intolerable for many women, especially those who were highly educated, to such an extent that they and their families had no option but to leave the country and restart their lives elsewhere. This study is concerned with the experiences of 17 such women who started new lives in Britain in the 1980s and 90s, how they dealt with any lack of ability to communicate in English, how they continued their careers or started new ones, and how they coped with the effects of substantial differences in the cultural values of their previous lives in Iran and in their new country. Using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, a large amount of data has been elicited from the participants. Analysis of this data has resulted in the following main findings. All of the women showed great strength of character, giving them determination to forge new successful lives. They all realised that learning the host language was a fundamental necessity in helping with their acculturation. Additionally, they encountered problems with the different sociocultural values of Iran and Britain. For example, living within a host society more liberal and less patriarchal than that of their home country was a factor that badly affected seven of their marriages. Moreover, homesickness and even bereavement as a result of leaving their home country was strongly felt by most of the participants. The main recommendations arising from this study are that the teaching of English to immigrants should be prioritised by the UK government and implemented competently with sufficient funding, that immigrants who have experienced trauma should be offered help and that the UN and host governments should make it clear to the Iranian ruling regime that their treatment of women, even at the current time, is inexcusable and foreign policy should be focussed upon making this clear to the authorities in Iran.