A Qualitative Examination of Contextually Insecure Diasporic Iranian Masculinities

Although the number of Iranian men living in Canada has grown quickly, research on diasporic Iranian men living in Canada remains scant. We employed collective memory work to explore the ways in which Iranian masculinities are challenged and navigated in a Western context. We analyzed thematically memories written by six Iranian men who immigrated to Canada between 2013 and 2022. Three themes were identified. The first, Masculine Binary Phenomenology , was extracted from observations, such as the girl/boy pair, that orbited around the participants’ binary worldviews. Men and Marriage , the second theme, was derived from observations that revolved around the organizing concept of marital life in the new context. Finally, the third theme, Contextual Masculine Precarity , was inductively extracted from observations that referred to feelings of insecurity and loss of power. We conclude by outlining limitations of the current study and directions for future inquiry.