Introduction

Cosmetic surgery has become a visible site where the body is evaluated, modified, and socially interpreted. In contemporary life, the body is shaped not only by biological features but also by mirrors, photographs, social media, family expectations, medical advice, and the gaze of others. This situation is intensified for women, whose bodies are more frequently judged through cultural ideals of beauty, youthfulness, and bodily harmony. For women who occupy religious and ritual positions, the experience becomes more complex, because bodily change is interpreted in relation to modesty, hijab, dignity, intention, and moral judgment.

Female Maddahs are a meaningful group for studying this complexity. Maddahi is not merely vocal performance; it is a religious and social presence in women’s gatherings. A female Maddah is heard through her voice, but she is also seen through her face, clothing, bodily posture, and style of appearing. Therefore, her body is not entirely private. It enters a religious field in which appearance may be admired, questioned, trusted, or morally evaluated. Previous studies have examined women’s cosmetic surgery in relation to body image, social pressure, media influence, self-esteem, and family encouragement. Other studies have shown that body management and appearance-related judgments are also present in religious women’s gatherings. However, the lived experience of women who both perform a visible religious role and have undergone cosmetic surgery has rarely been studied. This research asks: How do female Maddahs in Shiraz experience and make sense of cosmetic surgery?

Research Method

This study was conducted through a qualitative approach and descriptive phenomenology. The aim was not to measure attitudes toward cosmetic surgery or test relationships between variables, but to understand the participants’ lived experience. The study sought to explore how female Maddahs encountered their bodies, how they made the decision to undergo surgery, what fears and hopes accompanied this decision, and how they interpreted bodily change in relation to Maddahi, social gaze, and religiosity.

The field of the study was Shiraz. The participants were women who had experience both in Maddahi and in cosmetic surgery. Because access to this group was sensitive and limited, snowball sampling was used. Initial participants introduced other women with similar experiences, and sampling continued until the interviews no longer added substantially new meanings to the description of the phenomenon. In total, 11 female Maddahs participated in the study. Pseudonyms were used to protect confidentiality. The participants were between 33 and 57 years old. Two were single and the others were married. Their educational levels ranged from middle school and high school diploma to master’s and doctoral degrees. Their procedures included rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, facelift, sleeve gastrectomy, liposuction, jaw surgery, and facial angle surgery.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviews began with open questions and followed the participants’ narratives. The main interview axes included dissatisfaction with body or face before surgery, the context of decision-making, the role of family and significant others, the relationship between surgery and Maddahi, fears before surgery, reactions of others, the perceived relationship between surgery and religiosity, and feelings after surgery. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s method. The interviews were read several times; significant statements related to body, surgery, Maddahi, gaze, and religiosity were extracted; formulated meanings were written; and similar meanings were organized into clusters. To enhance trustworthiness, the analysis relied on repeated engagement with the data, direct quotations, a clear analytic path, and returning the final description and themes to the participants for confirmation.

Findings

The analysis showed that cosmetic surgery among female Maddahs cannot be reduced to a simple desire for beauty or to passive submission to social pressure. The overarching theme was “reconstructing the body at the intersection of Maddahi, social gaze, and religiosity.” Five main themes emerged.

The first theme, “the problematized body,” refers to the moment when the body or face ceases to be ordinary and becomes a source of concern. For some participants, the problem was centered on the face; for others, it appeared in weight gain, bodily changes after childbirth, or difficulty in clothing. The body was experienced in mirrors, photographs, clothing, religious gatherings, and comparison with others. Cosmetic surgery was therefore understood as a possible way to move closer to a desired image of self.

The second theme, “Maddahi and the body exposed to gaze,” shows the importance of the participants’ religious role. Female Maddahs are known through their voice, but their presence is also visual. Their face, clothing, posture, dignity, and appearance are part of the ritual setting. Being seen in religious gatherings intensified sensitivity toward appearance and created concern about the judgment of religious audiences.

The third theme, “deciding on surgery in a state of fear and hesitation,” reflects the uncertainty of the decision. Participants feared undesirable results, physical complications, and dissatisfaction after surgery. A distinctive finding was fear of damage to the voice. For female Maddahs, voice is not only a bodily function; it is a ritual resource, a professional tool, and part of religious identity.

The fourth theme, “defensible beauty,” refers to the effort to interpret surgery within religiosity. Participants did not necessarily view surgery as conflicting with religion. Many emphasized that their beliefs, hijab, and religious commitments had not changed. Yet beauty had to remain within boundaries of proper intention, modesty, naturalness, dignity, and compatibility with Maddahi.

The fifth theme, “settling into a new self-image,” describes the post-surgical experience. Many participants reported greater satisfaction, renewed confidence, and more comfortable presence in social and religious settings. However, the new self-image did not remove all tensions, because envy, sarcasm, and moral judgment could continue after surgery.

Conclusion

The findings indicate that cosmetic surgery among female Maddahs is a multilayered lived experience formed at the intersection of body, ritual performance, social gaze, and religiosity. The body in this experience is personal, because the woman lives with it, suffers from it, or becomes reconciled with it. It is social, because it is seen and judged in religious gatherings. It is also religious, because its modification must be explained through intention, modesty, hijab, dignity, and the moral boundaries of Maddahi.

This study suggests that female Maddahs are neither passive victims of beauty norms nor fully detached individual agents. Their decisions are shaped through bodily dissatisfaction, family encouragement, the normalization of cosmetic surgery, fear of results, concern about voice, audience judgment, and religious meaning-making. Understanding cosmetic surgery in this group requires attention to both social pressures and women’s active interpretation of bodily change. The value of this study lies in showing that cosmetic surgery among female Maddahs should be understood through the simultaneous presence of body, voice, ritual role, and moral self-understanding.