CULTURAL STUDIES & COMMUNICATION
Year:2012 | Volume:8 | Issue:26|Papers Count:10

As the research literature indicates, various studies have been conducted regarding the decision-making power of women in different countries including Iran. Nevertheless, the majority of these studies base their evaluation on the descriptions and reports provided by women about their decision-making power in the family. It should be considered that the evaluation by women might arise from their mental interpretations which could be far away from the reality. Accordingly, the present study aims to eliminate the possible obstacles toward an improved understanding of this issue by comparing and contrasting the evaluations provided by two groups of males and females.To this aim, the resourse theory, the social capital theory by Bourdieu, Bam’s theory, and Lerner’s theory serve as underlying theoretical foundations of the study. Next, the data are collected through a questionnaire from two groups of males and females during a survey in Mashhad. The mentioned data are collected from a sample of 570 individuals who are selected through cluster sampling. Finally, the results show that the decision-making power of women in family in the population under study (Mashhad) is on an average level. In contrast to the primary hypothesis that takes personal characteristics of the women as the most effective factor in this regard, the results reveal that the level couple’s belief in the gender stereotypes, and the husbands’ traits are among the most influential factors on women’s decision-making power.

The article studies the resistance discourse versus the quasi-modernity of Pahlavi regime. The surveillance pattern of female body is the main focus of the study of both the structure of the dominant discourse and the residance discourse. Using Foucalt’s theory on power and body relations and discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, the study attempts to draw meaning borders constructed around female body in social-political conflicts before the revolution. This study indicates that by conducting the White Revolution, the second Pahlavi tried to Westernize Iranian society to with a focus on displaying female body. This discourse which was spreading and developing in the context of society was assaulted by the traditional margins of society; the confrontation of these two discourses led to the emergence of a third discourse which due to its figurative power became one of the effective factors in the victory of the revolution. Through the rejection of both tradition and modernity in their conventional meaning, this discourse created a new pattern and meaning system of females body and gender relation and could reunite most groups under its metaphoric cover for creation of a utopian society.

The present study aims to investigate the effects of supports provided by informal social networks on the level of family life satisfaction of married women. The theoretical foundation of this study is rooted in social exchange and Leen theories.This study applies survey method and the data are collected through a questionnaire. The population of the study includes all of the married women in Ardebil and the sample for the study includes 367 individuals chosen by the cluster sampling.As the results of the study show, the level of family life satisfaction in women and the level of supports received by the informal social networks show a trend of average to high level. Among the received supports, the instrumental support shows the highest level while informational support shows the lowest level. The results of the regression indicate that there a significant relationship between the levels of support by informal social networks and family life satisfaction of married women. Moreover, there is a significant relationship between different types of informal network support and the variable of family life satisfaction in married women and the emotional support, in comparison to other types of supports, has the highest share in explaining the dependent variable.

This article uses data from qualitative research which carried out to understand the lived experience of women toward domestic violence as well as the causes of violence. It has been also the intension of the article to look at the viewpoint of women toward the role of criminal justice system, law and police in term of response to violent abusers. Data presented in this article is collected through in depth semi structured interview with 50 married women in Tehran aged 18 to 63. Since the size of sample is small it is not possible to make any statistical analysis and generalization.Finding suggests that domestic violence occurs in unequal context of power relations. Although women view domestic violence as terrible and quiet harmful but considered that as private and personal issue. Women are not interested to press charges against their violent husbands because they think it is useless since men are in control of law enforcement. However women have come to believe that domestic violence is avoidable if some changes are made in laws and cultural system which in their view are dominated by male interest. Nevertheless the domestic violence is not pursuable unless the women decide to take an action and press charges against perpetrators. Besides, the justice system should play vitally important role in wider efforts to seek an effective response to violent abuser to reduce harm and protect women against domestic violence.

Based on sociologists and psychologists point of view, physical appearance is not only a psychological and biological phenomenon, but also it is considered as a social phenomenon. People’s evaluation from their appearance is affected by present ideals in society. According to physical appearance importance and consequences of dissatisfaction from that. in this paper we aim to study the relationship between body esteem and social physical anxiety with body evaluation. The method of study is survey and statistical population includes over 15 year old women of Tabriz from whom we choose 316 women as studying method through multi stage stratified method. Theoretical framework includes the social physical anxiety and body esteem theories result of descriptive and inferential statistics show that: Mean of body evaluation among subjects was more than average.There is an inverse correlation between body evaluation and social physical anxiety.There is a direct and significant correlation between body esteem and its sub indexes (ability, face attractivity, physical attractivity, sexual attractivity and weight scale).%22 of changes related to social physical anxiety variable is explained by body esteem and its sub indexes.%41 of changes related to body evaluation is explained by independent variables (ability, face attractivity, physical attractivity, sexual attractivity, weight scale and social physical anxiety).Results of this study, based on direct, indirect and the whole independent variable’s effects show that body evaluation variable is mainly affected by weight scale and physical attractivity.

The advent of Islamic Revolution in Iran and the demographic changes of some Western countries due largely to the growing presence of Muslim minorities in this countries during the recent decades has made “Islamic code of dressing” an important topic of interest. In this respect, there has appeared a new research framework which has organized a particular way of understanding this topic, and brought about a certain bulk of knowledge in which the presuppositions, approaches, and the way of sketching the issues has not been reconsidered.While critically reviewing the available research on the code of dressing, the present study aims to answer the following questions: How have they dealt with the topic ‘code of dressing’? What aspects, if there are any, have been neglected by them? And what possible questions come out and appear to be posed? Discussing the state policies regarding “Islamic code of dressing”, approaching Islamic code of dressing from a juridical perspective and its denotations for the public sphere, probing the meanings of Islamic code of dressing and its related life-styles, and studying the way of representing Islamic code of dressing in media, are all concepts that have been more accounted for in these research trends. While reviewing and drawing on the constraints in each research, and criticizing the totality of this discourse space, it will be attempted to highlight the importance of posing a new question.

Marital satisfaction in the family is the most important element of the psychological and physical health of family member; and healthy community are formed by consciously bonds, healthy and thriving Consociation of the couple. This study was a survey and research data is collected through questionnaire. ENRICH’s marital satisfaction scale research tools and questionnaire on participation in family decision making, sense of family responsibility, has achieved the sense of family belonging and legal awareness. Research credit is nominal and analytical scale has been approved by using Cronbach’s alpha test. Statistical society is married women from different parts of Kashan city and based on census of 1385, are in population of 69929 cases and the formula volume sampling of Cochran is 381 cases.Result of research show that, the sense of belonging and participation in decision making is role affect in increase of marital satisfaction. The result of Regression also indicates that the marital satisfaction is affected by variables in participation of family in decision making (Beta: 0.031), sense of family belonging (Beta: 0.031) and feeling of family responsibilities (Beta: -0.16). And the sum of these variables has been able to explain 18% of the variance in marital satisfaction (R2: 0.18).In path analysis model, the most direct effect on marital satisfaction is to participate in family decisions makings. Indirect impact is felt most in family responsibilities.

The media’s role today as one of the most important social factors in the transmission of social and cultural heritage and values is nowadays of interest to scientists and social science expert. The role of media consumption and its effects on the schemata and gender role stereotypes in family, social and professional realms is particularly important. On this basis, the main purpose of this paper is to explain the relationship between media consumption and attitudes to women’s gender roles in the statistical population of the study.This study used social survey questionnaires and interview techniques for data collection. A survey of all women between 15 to 65 years in Kashan in 1390 was performed, 400 of whom were selected using Cochran’s formula. Results showed positive relations between media use and attitudes to gender roles. Moreover, the F-test results (F=5.559) confirmed differences between attitudes to gender equality in terms of media use.

Throughout the history the religious gatherings have taken various forms as a center for achieving and manifesting the ritual aspect of religion in connection with cultural, social, and economical background of the believer society. This paper is aimed to indicate the manifestation of Iran socio-cultural changes that had occurred until the late 1980s in the women’s ritual rites in Tehran, according to the type of gatherings. This is done based on functionalist theories and by using the documentary method, field study, direct observation, and semi-structured interview. The findings show that in addition to the traditional and conventional forms of women’s threnodies that have been commonly held since Qajar era in a very simple way and in eulogist/speaker structure by giving a very emotional speech full of advice, preaches, and un-translated prayer for the old local illiterate or low-literate audience, two other forms of “ popular” and “cognition-oriented” gatherings have got prevailing among the modern urban cultured women since 1970s. The popular gatherings are held in a very luxurious and glamorized way and in eulogist/musician structure. As for the content, it is very informal and understandable for all, which is addressed to usually younger, unemployed audience with various social status and average education. In contrast, cognition-oriented" gatherings are held in a splendid luxurious style with more formalities, with eulogist/speaker and eulogist/ speaker/ musician structures. The content is more rational, argumentative, and cognitive. The audience is young and highly educated from high social class and professions. The findings manifest the women’s new and various cultural demands in connection with the cultural context of society.