Oppression and empowerment: domestic foodwork and culinary capital among diasporic Iranian women in Aotearoa/New Zealand

This paper examines evolutions of domestic foodwork and associated status among diasporic Iranian women in contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand. Drawing on feminist food studies, as well as on Bourdieu’s notion of cultural and symbolic capitals, we examine the two-fold, oppression-empowerment aspects of domestic foodwork, specifically its transformation from a socio-cultural obligation in the origin home to a means of agentic liberation and social empowerment in diaspora. Furthermore, we explore how this transformation is strategically negotiated by some women to successfully generate positions of enhanced respect, status, and private influence both within the domestic sphere and the wider diasporic Iranian community in Aotearoa/New Zealand.