ABSTRACT
Analysing the everyday rituals, events and their metaphoric substances led me to examine further women's religious beliefs of vow-and merit-making. The vow is their principal religious activity involving ritual exchanges of nazr (vow, object of desire) and nazri (promised gift). In this chapter I shall explore vowmaking as a form of ritual exchange, and as a principal religious activity mostly practised by women. I shall focus on two aspects of nazr and nazri exchanges: (1) the 'pious' gift exchange, and (2) its relationship to the socio-economic changes in Iran.
