December 18, 2025 Directed by Elisabeth Dutton and sponsored by The University of Fribourg’s Department of English join us for:
- The WOMARD team have contributed pieces on Taʿziyeh (including audio recordings and photographs) to “The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: An Online Exhibition of a Living Iranian Shrine,” an independent project directed by Keelan Overton. The Emamzadeh Yahya is an Ilkhanid monument (ca. 1260-1310) and a living sacred space. This online exhibition offers an alternative museological space for exploring the shrine’s many looks, functions, resonances, users, and stories over the last eight hundred years. It is hosted by Khamseen-Islamic Art History Online.
For the Ta’ziyeh pieces see:
Deacon, Taʿziyeh-khani
Khalili, Performance of the Martyrdom of ʿAli Akbar.
Past Events
2025
- July 18-23, 2025 The University of Fribourg hosted the 18th triennial colloquium of SITM, the Société Internationale pour l’étude du Théâtre Médiéval. The program included a WOMARD panel and a various performances connected to the project’s themes.
- March 26, 2025 from 5-6pm (GMT) Lucy Deacon, online talk to launch her new book Karbala in the Taʿziyeh Episode: Shiʿi Devotional Drama in Iran at The British Institute of Persian Studies. Download the Open Access e-book here.
2024
October 2-4, 2024 Sara Khalili Jahromi presented the paper “Preservation, Prohibition and Provenance: Addressing the Mysteries of the Cerulli Collection of Taʿziyeh Manuscripts,” written jointly with Lucy Deacon, at the First International Conference on Iranian Studies: Bridging Past, Present, and Future, University of Bucharest, Romania.
September 24 – WOMARD Project Launch – a day of talks, short films, and lively discussion at the University of Fribourg introduced the dramatic traditions and the project team. Talks included:
-Prof. Sonya Yamploskaya, “Introduction to Purim Shpil: Biblical Drama and Carnival Satire.”
-Prof. Elisabeth Dutton and Dr Lucy Deacon, “Unmasking the Transhistorical: The Medieval Mysteries and Iranian Taʿziyeh Compared.”
– Dr Sara Khalili Jahromi, “Preservation, Prohibition and Provenance: Addressing the Mysteries of the Cerulli Collection of Taʿziyeh Manuscripts.”
-Prof. Babak Rahimi, “Taʿziyeh: Rethinking a Devotional Tradition,” and short film: “Muharram in Bushehr.”
July 3, 2024 Comparing the dramatic presentation of Esther, deliverer of the Jewish people, with that of Zainab bint ‘Ali, revered within Shi’ism for her fearless resistance, and leadership through crisis, Dutton and Deacon present the paper ‘Esther and Zainab: Religious Heroines in Civic ‘Space’’ at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds.
May 24-25, 2024 Considering the use, or non-use, of masks or face veils in the portrayal of holy figures and spiritual encounters, Prof. Elisabeth Dutton and Dr Lucy Deacon presented the paper ‘Unmasking the Trans-Historical: The Medieval Mysteries and Iranian Taʿziyeh Compared’, at the conference Affiliations: Towards a Theory of Cross-Temporal Comparison, University of Oxford.
May 16, 2024 Daniel Boyarin, the Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, and member of the WOMARD advisory board, visited Fribourg giving the talk “The Ambivalence of the Historian: Josephus caught between Peace and Andreia.” A big thank you to all who attended, and to you Professor Boyarin for the fascinating lecture.
Future plans
2027
- WOMARD will convene a conference on the depiction, through performance, of Abraham’s Binding of Isaac (Judaism, Christianity) or Isma’el (Shi’i Islam) – an event that has very different interpretations in the three traditions. Comparing the portrayal of the matriarchs Sarah and Hajar in these narratives provides an important link between the project’s study of female figures and its enquiry into the dramatization of martyrdom and sacrifice.
WOMARD 