Since the revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has permitted few Western scholars to conduct research in the country. Here Julia Huang provides a remarkable account of local tribal life in Iran and depicts a community largely beyond the scope and reach of foreign travellers and the Western media. Huang documents the difficult livelihoods and lifestyles of these mobile Qashqa'i pastoralists and their society and culture, and she explains how this Turkic-speaking group relates to the wider Iranian society and the Islamic Republic. Focusing on a small group of women, she shows us how they adapt to a rapidly changing world while retaining tribal values and a distinctive ethnolinguistic identity as one of Iran���s largest national minorities. Engagingly written and documenting a disappearing way of life, "Tribeswomen of Iran" is essential reading for all those interested in Iran, the Middle East, anthropology, nomadism and gender.

Julia Huang has lived among Qashqa���i nomadic pastoralists in southwestern Iran for extended periods of her childhood and adolescence between 1991 and 2004, together with her mother, the distinguished American anthropologist, Lois Beck. Huang is the author of a chapter in 'Nomadic Societies in the Middle East and North Africa' (2006; edited by Dawn Chatty) and the co-author of an article on Iran in 'Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East' (2006). As a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, she conducts anthropological research on social entrepreneurs, and she is the regional coordinator for Central Asia and the Caucasus for AIESEC, an international NGO. Inducted in Phi Beta Kappa and proficient in Turkish, Persian and French, she graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a degree in anthropology.