Health and Fertility among Iranians and Afghani Refugees in Iran

University Of California-San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

Tober This pilot project will allow a young scholar to do preliminary research on the topic of how Afghani refugees in Iran access local health care services. The problem to be addressed is how adherents to a more conservative branch of Islam interact with social services predicated on a more liberal Islamic philosophy. The specific focus of the project will be family planning as part of a package of health promotion and education. The project will be carried out in the city of Isfahan, Iran and in the surrounding countryside, including rural/urban and Afghani/Iranian comparisons. Using participant observation, semi-structured interviews and collecting demographic data from clinic files, the researcher will assess the capability of Islamic philosophy in practice to deal with fundamental cultural differences. The work will contribute to an increased understanding of Islam as a religion and a cultural value system, and will advance our understanding of how refugees in general, from more traditional cultures, adapt to novel settings, opportunities and constraints in more innovative settings. The broader impacts of this research by a Western scholar in Iran are very significant, in making human contacts between societies that have been in an adversarial relationship, and in advancing our understanding of social life in this part of the world.