UVA professor to speak about "The Veil: A Modern Fetish"

Farzaneh Milani, noted professor of Persian Literature and Women’s Studies, will speak at the University of Richmond on Sept. 23, at 7 p.m., in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall, in the first event of the 2008–09 WILL/WGSS/Quest Speaker Series.

The title of her lecture is “The Veil: A Modern Fetish,” and it will include her theories on what the veil has come to signify in the present. Although the veil has become a highly controversial phenomenon today, Milani says that the veil was not always immediately associated with Islamic culture or the suppression of women.

Milani teaches courses at the University of Virginia in Persian literature and cinema, Women and Islam, and cross-cultural studies of women.

Each year, the WILL (Women Involved in Living and Learning), WGSS (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies) and Quest programs sponsor a speaker series to bring prominent women and men to the University of Richmond to speak about gender and diversity-related issues. Journalist Harriet Washington and scholar Susan Bordo also will be featured during the 2008–09 series.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information call (804) 289-8578.

Posted January 10, 2008