Identity and Urban Public Sphere, Case Study of College Girl Students in the City of Rafsanjan

Urban life is the most sensible manifestation indicatingthe penetration of modernity into human societies. Thus, the urge of belonging to collectivities and of presence in social spheres has become one of the basic needs of the contemporary human beings. Urban life is regarded to be the most important influence on the modern Iranian life style.The utilization of public spheres in different societies depends on variables such as age, gender, social group, ethnic and racial minorities and the like. These variables tend to influence the degree and manner of presence in the urban public spheres. Identity crisis has deepened within the youth and it is being extended from superficial and unstable aspects to action-related and stable subjective aspects. Today the young individual not only feels the need of adjusting to social and informal norms but he/she feels compelled to manipulate the behavioral habits, however much regarded not so desirable. The present paper aims to study how identity-related social and cultural contexts and youth-related situations are formed and evolved concerning the female youth of the city of Rafsanjan, which is located at the South-East of the country. This study is based on qualitative methods of urban anthropology using data gathered by interview and field observation during summer and fall of 2012, on a group of 50 girl students in the city. The results show a high degree of dissatisfaction of these girls with their everyday life situation. The content analysis results show that psycho-social pressures exerted on girls both by the family and by the informal law influence their thoughts as well as their actions in a way that their gender identity has become highlighted. The findings also indicate a conflicting situation which offers a dichotomized alternative for girls and women in facing the tradition/modernity fault and in adjusting to it. The overall situation distorts their identity formation processes.