WOMAN IN CULTURE AND ART (WOMEN'S RESEARCH)
Year:2011 | Volume:2 | Issue:3|Papers Count:7

The present study deals with the developments of archeology in the second half of the twentieth century. Influenced by women freedom movements and the developments in other branches of humanities and social sciences, women studies entered the realm of archeological studies in this period. The current study examines the historical development of women studies approaches in archeology and its importance in the development of theoretical framework of archeology and providing new analytical capabilities. Updating the theoretical frameworks of archeology, a paradigm shift towards the role of women in the past societies, and the promotion of the status of female researchers in the field of archeology have been a few achievements of women studies. It should be mentioned here that the concept of ‘gender’ as used in the scope of social sciences is a little different from that used in archeology. In archeology, the term “archeology of gender” is often applied to a new approach the principles of which are the study and analysis of the role of men and women (mostly women) in the process of the development of past societies. In this article, we look at ‘gender’ from the archeological point of view.

Parvin Etesami is a poet who artistically used Persian poetry in order to criticize the status quo of the society and express its deficiencies. Her Divan (collection of poems), which is her only heritage for us, is teeming with debates, allegories, sarcasms with social themes. This article deals with sociological investigation of the social and class discrimination from her point of view. In addition, the social and political conditions of her time are discussed. Also, her ideas about women and her theory on women’s emancipation and fighting against oppression are explained through her works.

After Reza Khan took power and established a powerful central government, the way was paved for planning reforms in Iran. Among these reforms was the improvement of the status of women, which tried to make Iran similar to the West. This goal accounts for the removal of hijab and changing the appearance of the people. In the present study, through library research, the authors investigated how people protested against the removal of hijab and compared it with various cultural, economic, psychological and social indices of resistance against the reforms; it was concluded that people’s fidelity to religious beliefs and values as well as other cultural factors constitutes the most important reason why they resisted hijab removal. It should be noted that social, psychological, and even economic factors have also been influential on this resistance in Iran.

Palestinian woman poets have frequently used mythical concepts, especially those of God's messengers, in their poems, and they have sometimes been inspired by these myths. Although myths have ancient origins, they endow the contemporary poet's thoughts with a deep scope, while, at the same time, the poet reprocesses them and give them the present day flavour .Therefore, most poems by Palestinian woman poets are full of teeming with mythical beliefs and teachings; beliefs that begin from the earliest moments of the dawn of creation and continue up to the last moment of the poet's life. The present study deals with the mythical worldview in the poems by Palestinian woman poets and how they have utilised the myths of God's prophets in their poems.

As a prominent contemporary theory, feminism tries to challenge other fields of study by this question: What do we know about women? This question entails other questions: what is the status of women? How influential are women in these statuses? This article tries to examine and criticise the dramatic literature of the holy defense with an emphasis on women's status in six outstanding dramas in this contemporary trend of art in Iran. Although the holy defense of the Iranian nation engaged men and women indiscriminately, an unstable status of women in the related dramas has been shown, and their influence through their personal and social life has been belittled. An analysis of the 30-year-long activities of the dramatic literature of the holy defense, whether qualitatively or quantitatively, based on liberal feminism to Islamic feminism approach, shows that these works have failed to reflect the true status of women and their undisputable role during war and post-war period.

Najib Kilani is the first writer dealing with Muslim problems in his stories beyond the boundaries of the Arab world; in his avant-garde novels, such as Turkestan Nights, Jakarta's Virgin, and Giants of the North, which take place in Turkestan, Indonesia, and Nigeria respectively, he deals with these problems. In these novels, he has depicted the contemporary Muslim nations' struggle against colonialism; he has allocated a great share to Muslim women, who struggle shoulder to shoulder with men, persisting in their beliefs and religion. Their life is not limited to the house. They struggle can be verbal, armed or doctrinal. In each novel, there is a female main character, and the characters of all the three women are complex. For characterization, Kilani uses both direct and indirect methods. For main characters, he mostly uses narrator, dialogue, description of behaviour, and for secondary characters, he mainly uses indirect method, description of behaviour and face, as well as dialogue. Kilani establishes a special relation between characters and their names, so that the characters’ behavior obviously witness to their names. He does not pay much attention to the description of women’s faces; rather he tries to depict their internal characteristics. The details he provides in this regard show his wealth of knowledge as regards the status of women in Islam.

Many of the contemporary authors and researchers such as C. Bartholomae (the author of the book “Zum sassanidischem Recht”) and Arthur Christensen (the author of the book “Iran in the Sassanian Period”), believe that women had a very bad status in the Sassanian period, being dealt with as slaves or objects. However, studying the religious and non-religious resources of this period, including Avesta and Matikan-e-Hazar Datastan (The Digest of a Thousand Points of Law), we realise that, in that period, women could testify in court and express their opinion about marriage, while a father could not coerce her daughter into marrying someone. Also, a girl could marry someone she loved without her father’s permission; after marriage, she could do business or even divorce her husband. Therefore, it is shown that women had a suitable status in the Sassanid society.