Speaker: Dr. Pardis Mahdavi

Topic: Who Will Catch Me If I Fall? Health And The Infrastructure Of Risk For Urban Iranian Youth

Wednesday October 25, 2006

This presentation focuses on high risk behavior, particularly high risk sexual activity and opiate use, among young people in Iran. While preliminary statistics show a rising HIV and drug problem, little is known about the settings and motivations behind urban Iranian youth initiation into high risk practices. Qualitative, ethnographic research methods were used to describe Iranian young people's initiation into high risk practices, and the circumstances, networks, social environments and motivations surrounding these initiation events. Level of knowledge of high risk behavior (e.g. knowledge of transmission of HIV or STIs, and sterile injection paraphernalia) were also assessed. The goal of this research is to develop materials and information to be
used as part of a larger online sex education, HIV/AIDS and risk reduction campaign in Iran.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to: (1) identify risks posed to urban Iranian youth in terms of HIV, drug use, and overall harm, (2) discuss ways in which local experiences of high risk behavior both shape and are shaped by global frameworks.

Pardis Mahdavi, PhD has recently joined Pomona College as Assistant Professor of anthropology after pursuing her doctorate at Columbia University in the departments of Sociomedical Sciences and Anthropology. She received her BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College, and an MA (in Anthropology) and a Masters of International Affairs (MIA) from Columbia University. Her research interests include sexuality, human rights, transnational feminism and public health in the context of changing global and political structures. Her dissertation project was on the intersection between sexuality and politics in post-revolutionary Iran, focusing on the new sexual and social revolution among urban Iranian young adults.