PEYKE NOOR JOURNAL
Year:2004 | Volume:2 | Issue:2 (HUMANITIES)|Papers Count:16

The myth of Siavash symbolizes the particular beliefs of Asian agricultural societies about fall and spring, drought, rain and plant life. The myth, taken from the myths of plant divinities of Mesopotamia, was adapted for Iranian culture in Iranian Plateau and the Indus valley in the period before the Ariyans entered Iran. It was centralized in Middle Asia and was performed as a ritual play for about 3000 years.The record for the mourning rites of Siavash in Norooz reveals the depth of the people’s beliefs and the significance of the myth to the peasants of Middle Asia. The few available pictures, which are about the way the ceremony was held, indicate the presence of the main elements such as woman and music, and the presence of gods with a halo around their heads denotes the divinity of the rites. Although after the mourning rites ended, a glorious celebration, known as plant growth celebration, was held for Siavash on the first day of the new year in spring, there is little information about it. In this article the author tries to explain different views about the origin of the aforementioned rites in Iran.

Some conception of the relationship between literature and society is rather straightforward: literature is a reflection of society, a force in society, or simply a separate part of social life. Others argue that the enterprise of literature is more complex: It is a realm which has the potential for capturing the diverse forms of interaction between various parts of and players in society. Thus the roles of literature in society, and the society in literature remain open to debate. That literature is best understood only as aesthetic creation may silence the debate yet leave many question unanswered. The goal of this article is to explore the multifaceted relationship between literature and society with respect to present literary and sociological theories.

In this article, the author briefly introduces Hussein ibn Mansur-i Hallaj, the AH 3rd-century mystic, and deals with the reasons why different titles were ascribled to him by the ‘Abbasids and others in different sources. Then, he states his own views about those who gave Hallaj honorific and negative titles. The main part of the article deals with the accusations laid against him by the Mu‘tazilids and later by the Sunni mystics.

Iranian administrative system is one of the topics that has received the attention of many researchers in the recent decades. However, the administrative system of the Khwarezm-Shahian period has been neglected. The objective of this article is to study this system and to present an introduction to the organizational structure of the Khwarezm-Shahian empire.

On the basis of a historical analysis, this article studies the governing thoughts and principles of urban planning and its spatial-physical materialization in ancient Iranian urbanization, from the Medes to the Sassanids. In this connection, first the principles which were observed prior to the physical formation of the cities and were of great importance to their structure are recognized and analyzed. Then, the physical output and material manifestation of the principles (ie the form or spatial organization of the cities in the course of history) are discussed. In this way, this article provides both a top-down study and a bottom-up one because, in the field of architecture, form and content are part and parcel of each other and function in an interactive unification.Contrary to some present ideas about the exoticness of the thoughts governing Iranian urbanization, the findings of this research emphasize the fact that Iran is one of the most important realms wherein both theoretical and practical basics of urbanization have been formed and developed. The main essence of Iranian systematic principles, as long lasting principles, can be adapted for current needs and can eliminate some contemporary urbanization crises. This is a technical and philosophical outlook mixed with the principles of post moderism theory.

In this paper, the authors want to explain the Iranian government policy-making approach in the foreign sector of economy by considering the available statistical information, and to determine the type of strategy taken by the economy. In this respect, two variables are utilized: (1) non-oil export as an index of export development strategy, and (2) value add of the industrial sector as an import substitute strategy. Moreover, with the presence of an investment index, the effects of these variables on the economic growth are examined by means of econometric models. The model suggested here is an adaptation of the basic model for developing countries presented by Salvatore (1991). By using econometric methods, especially the discussions related to cointegration, parameters are estimated and results are interpreted. In conclusion, Iranian trading strategy is recognized as an inward-oriented strategy.

The complex process of development and the role of human resources, as its primary feature, call for a rethinking of the role of women who now comprise half of the world’s population. This article primarily deals with the role and socio-economic status of women. In this regard, the main perspective will be the UN Charter and the Convention on Human Rights on the basis of which the principle of equality of men and women has been recognized. Following that, it reviews the approaches which chart out women’s role in the development process. These approaches, which were formed in an evolutionary manner, include welfare, justice, poverty alleviation, effectiveness and empowerment ones. The first three approaches largely incorporate support for women. The last two, which cause fundamental development in recognizing the role of women, underscore the ‘skill’ factor.Next it refers to the need for eliminating the obstacles hindering the way of women’s progress, and emphasizes the role of education in the empowerment of women as an instrument of development. In conclusion, reflection is made on the conditions of Iranian women. The focus is on the women who, with access to higher education, can and should play a more effective role in the cultural, economic and social development of the country.

The houses and buildings built in the past were resistant to the instable atmospheric conditions and naturally preserved people in all weathers because of observing climatic principles and criteria. After the industrial revolution, human technological development along with the accessibility of fossil energy caused the principles and criteria to fall into oblivion. However, because of the limited sources of the energy and the rise of ecological problems, from the mid 20th century, there was a tendency to the nature and observing the principles once more, and this resulted in the invention of various climatic techniques. In this article, it will be indicated that the designed techniques taken from the climatic criteria of local architecture are the most efficient. This will be supported with regards to the local architecture of the Kish is land, Iran.

Self-regulation is one of the major topics in psychology which has recently received the attention of a great number of scholars and specialists. In this article, first self-regulation is defined and then Zimmerman’s academic self regulation theory is introduced. Next, the necessity of teaching self-regulation, as one of the important learning strategies that has a great role in students’ academic achievement, is dealt with.

In order to study the relation between the leadership style and the organizational climate governing the centers and units of the sixth region of Payame Noor University, in a field study, all the heads and 171 employees, who were chosen by means of simple accidental approach, filled in Luthans’ leadership style and Halpin’s and Groft’s organizational climate description questionnaires. The data were extracted and then analyzed by means of descriptive statistic indexes, Chi square statistic test, Fisher’s exact test and Phi coefficient and by using SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Science).The results reveal that none of the heads is a Payame Noor faculty member.Most of the employees (83.7%) are men whose age average is 32. Regarding therate of education, most of them (35.8%) are graduates and their major is mostly (68.2%) humanities.Regarding their employment status, most of them (43.7%) are contract staff and only 21.1% are formally employed. Besides, 35.2% include those who receive daily wages and those not belonging to the contract staff or formally employed group. From among these, only 3.3% are faculty members of the university. The average record of the employees service at Payame Noor University is five years and that of the heads is two. Besides, the results indicate that the leadership style of 86.9% of centers and units of the sixth region is organization-oriented and the organizational climate of 79.1% of centers and units is open.The analysis of the findings shows that there is no meaningful relation between the leadership style and organizational climate governing Payame Noor University centers and units of region 6; in most centers, the leadership style is organization-oriented and the organizational climate is open. Besides, the results revealed that features like gender, age, the rate of education and the field of study, the employment status and the kind of service, the record of the service and Payame Noor management have no effective role in the leadership style and organizational climate of the above- mentioned centers and units. In the final part of the article, the research delimitations are mentioned and some suggestions are provided.

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the attitudes of Payame Noor University students of region 6 (Hamadan, Kermanshah and Kurdestan provinces) toward the existent elements of distance education. The specific objectives of the study were (1) to examine the differences between students attitudes in regards to their age, gender, marital status, employment status, and major (ie the natural sciences and humanities), and (2) to identify the most satisfactory and unsatisfactory elements. The population of the research includedall humanities and science students (4131 ones) of four univesity centers (ie Islamabad, Tuiserkan, kermanshah and Hamadan) in the academic year 2002-2003. The sample of the study consisted 225 junior students who were familiar with different aspects of the system, and who were selected through stratified random sampling according to their gender and major. The instrument of the study was a questionnaire with 40 closed responses at Likert scale designed by the researcher, and three open-response questions offered to students for the purpose of the promotion of distance education programs.The findings showed that: (A) There were significant differences between the students attitudes regarding their age and employment and marital status, ie older, employed and married students were more satisfied with the system and more optimistic about it; (B) There were no significant differences between students attitudes with respect to the provinces, centers, and their major and gender; (C) Among existent elements of distance education system, including program, teaching methods, text books, lecturers, evaluation, physical environment and psychological climate, the most satisfactory ones were the two centeralized elements, ie evaluation and texts, and the most unsatisfactory were the physical environment and psychological climate.

The main objective of this article is to briefly study usury from the viewpoint of the Holy Qur’an. Therefore, after defining the term, Qur’anic verses related to usury are discussed according to their descending order, and their interpretive points are dealt with. In conclusion, the results are considered.Deliberating the topic from the viewpoints ofthe Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah(ie the traditions narrated from the Prophet and Imams) together seems necessary since theSunnah both interprets and explains the verses. Thus, to interpret and explain some of the verses, some traditions will be mentioned.Regarding the importance of the topic, usury will be studied from the viewpoint of theSunnah in another article.

The beginning of the third millennium concides with the revolution in genetic engineering and information communi-cation technology (ICT) which are rapidly changing the economic and social structures of ancient societies to bring into existence a new society known as "network society". This society, regarding its particular features, sees all social classes such as economy, education, culture, politics, and especially time and place as constantly changing phenomena which go towards globalization. Moreover, it causes national and local governments, which usually represent their national will and territorial integrity, to confront with the heavy pressure of the process and of the world the elements of which are all in flux. Regarding the presence of this inevitable process, the separation from which is impossible, governments should pay special attention to their great responsibilities for their societies and provide their people with the knowledge of how to get along with and live in this society by means of lifelong education. It is possible that in this way they can prevent the individuals’ social elimination and their deviation from the powerful global network.Educating people in large scales is not possible in the present framework of traditional education and physical environment. But distance and open university experiences will gain a special position in the network society and can have a great role in educating the public, particularly the adults, in the new global order.