Woman in Development and Politics
Year:2005 | Volume:3 | Issue:3 (13)|Papers Count:11

In this article the presence of women in Islamic society has been addressed. Women has been discussed in three social, economic, and scientific areas. The relation between the Islamic jurisdiction and social presence of women has been studied based on the act and tradition of the Prophet and Imams. Moreover, this article examines how much the Islamic rulers adhere to the Islamic acts and traditions. The author tries to make distinction between what is resulted from the rulers' acts and what is related to the essence of Islam. The findings show that there is no restriction on women's presence based on Islamic tradition. So it can be concluded that Islam has emphasized on women's social participation in Islamic society.

This paper is trying to offer a better understanding of relationships between government and non-governmental organizations in Iran. Although the constitutional law, development plans, development practitioners have paid more attention to the importance of NGOs in the society, but still NGOs are not functioning properly. The 1990s has been quite a decade for increasing the number of non-governmental organizations in Iran. It has affected the relationship between the government and the NGOs. The study on challenges of this relation based on cooperation, Co-optation, complementar and confrontation could indicate the possibility of empowerment and capacity building of the NGOs.Although various executive and administrative institutions are willing to exercise legal supervision on the organizations but social groups and elites believe that the government does not establish public communities since it would undermine the organization's power. However, it is important to determine an effective relationship between governmental and non-governmental organizations. This article tries to identify those possible damages which can influence an effective relationship between NGO's and government. As a result of discussion between focused groups and different groups in Tehran and other cities, this study offers an optimal approach to the relationship. This approach could strengthen cooperation and collaboration between the government and these organizations. If the current relationship continues, it will probably make a restriction on women to solve their problem fundamentally. Moreover, the emphasis of the Constitution and the Development Plans on women's participation would be ignored.

One of the main classifications in human societies is based on sex. Although this kind of classification is originated from the physiology of human beings but it can result in some stereotypings about men and women.Stereotypes are traits which can be attributed to all members of a group without considering the differences between them.In other words, stereotypes are part of the thoughts and beliefs of each society which can be reproduced within the mainstream culture and transfer to generation after generation.Sometimes these stereotypes can achieve a strong base in the society as if they are a kind of natural quality. In contemporary societies, mass media including T.V. is one of the most responsible mechanisms for reproducing the culture and its elements.In this article it is tried to answer the following questions:What kind of gender stereotypes are presented in Iranian T.V. programs?Is there any link between these stereotypes and Iranian traditional culture?The method applied in this research is qualitative and quantitative content analysis.The present study demonstrates that while in Iranian traditional culture, women have been descried as deceitful, foolish, unfaithful, passive, inferior; men are described as truthful, wise, loyal, active and superior. It is interesting to note that some of these stereotypes such as being deceitful or passive are still reproduced in Iranian T.V. dramas, and being unwise mostly is attributed to women. Generally speaking, women are portrayed as second sex. and inferior to men as superior, active, truthful and loyal. These images are even articulated in family structure which is presented in T.V. dramas.

In some traditional societies including Iran, birth giving is an element of women's identity and status, also having a child is looked as a source of women's power in the family and society. Therefore infertility typically can be considered as woman's problem Consequently infertile women face more family and social problems than infertile men. This study is to examine the conditions of these women as well as the effects of infertility on different aspects of their lives. The necessary data for this study have been collected through qualitative method and deploying in-depth interview with 30 infertile women in Tehran. This study has provided profound perception about the social and cultural conditions of infertile women in the society. The result of research showed that infertility can bring a great deal of problems of women even where the cause of infertility attached to men rather than women. In this case where men are in denial of their problem, women are threatened to go along with divorce and leave their home. Promoting public knowledge on infertility could save the infertile women against several problems facing, and eventually could contribute the family's health and stability.

After the Second World War one of the most effective ways which could make an important impact on the life of minorities and deprived communities has been positive discrimination. Of course, it has been always controversial in terms of its legitimacy as well as its real impact on changes. Using positive discrimination to promote women's condition in many countries and fields such as entering of women to universities, manager rent positions, and generally to womanly positions has been received great deal of attention, and it could be effective in Iranian society. in which warren's circumstances is rapidly changing. Although the condition of Iranian women has changed significantly and they are more educated than they were before, this strong social presence has not resulted in having decent job opportunities. So Iranian women are experiencing vulnerable conditions in comparison with the conditions of Iranian men.However, it is not a case just for Iranian women to experience these unfair circumstances since it is typically seen in most developing countries. Surprisingly, even in some developed countries the access of women have been narrowed toward some high profile jobs and they are faced various difficulties when it comes their promotion within the system This study tries to find out about the historical origins of positive discrimination and it's compatibility with the condition of women in developing and developed countries. It is also tried to find out about the possibility of positive discrimination in terms of its application in Iranian society.

In this article the sins and the presence of the women in Ardavirafnameh, a Pahlavi book, has been surveyed The book is one of the important religious books of Zoroastrianism Although this book has been written contemporarily but the foundation of the introduced ideas comes from Sasanian period Since the book has directly addressed some women's issues and state of their sins in The Day of Judgment, studying this book is sort of pondering on women's affairs in Sasanian.Ardaviraf in his journey to The Day of Judgment sees a lot of men and women sent to paradise or hell because of different causes. Examining every woman's conditions, the article concludes that women's sins and punishment is related to their sex. Unlike men whose careers and behaviors determine them to be sent to the paradise or hell, women are sent to hell and paradise just for being woman - frequently from men's point of view and those burdens which men imposed on their shoulders. Some of the women's sins which are addressed in Ardavirafnameh are prostitution, disloyalty to matrimony, doing some jobs during their menstruation while they are forbidden to do that, witchcraft, refusing to milk their kids, abortion, having dispute with their husband and avoiding getting married to their blood related relatives.

This study classifies the regions and districts according to the access of male and female students to educational opportunities in Sistan and Baloochestan. The necessary information was collected in terms of regions, districts, and sex by referring to the Iranian statistics of Census and population in 1375.We used Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve to rank the regions and measure the access to educational opportunities according to educational studying i.e. transition rate. The results indicate that educational opportunities were not distributed equally in all regions. The male's and female's access rate to education was lower than the average rate of the country. On the other hand, the girls experienced less educational opportunities in comparison with the boys and there is a significant difference between these two sexes.

This article is an analytical review of the book "The veil and the male elites" written by Fatima Mernissi The author of the book justifies her elaboration based on two historical references namely Tabari History and Traditions of lbn Husham The limitation of references utilized by the author as well as neglecting research standards in analysis and critical review of the issues has the her book unreliable from so many aspects. But the author's failure is more significant on various issues such as instruction of veiling for women according to verse 53 from Ahzab, in Koran. The wrong approach which is applied by Mernissi led her to depict a voyeuristic picture of great prophet.