WOMEN'S STRATEGIC STUDIES (KETABE ZANAN)
Year:2009 | Volume:11 | Issue:42|Papers Count:9

Nowadays, theory of Ethics of Care is proposed by some feminists as a replacement for traditional theories of ethics considered male-dominated. Carol Gilligan applied Kullberg’s method in the growth of children’s moral judgment and achieved a theory which she called “Ethics of Care.” Her achievements were late completed by female feminist thinkers and philosophers and changed to a theory of ethics against common western theories. This theory proposes three main criticisms against Kant’s obligation-based theory of ethics and Mill’s pragmatism and considers them as incomplete or incorrect because of being male-dominated theories of ethics. These three criticisms are referring to general ethical rules, observing neutrality, and exclusively emphasizing on rationality. On the other hand, it is claimed that Ethics of Care is not rule-based, is non-holistic, text-based, objective, and involved in emotions rooted in gender. The present paper is analysis of the above idea.

Though modernity revealed women’s humanity (the covert half), it concealed their womanliness (the overt half). To be a human, women must become similar to men as much as possible according to modernity. As a result, woman of modernity is a human being but with all of the manly characteristics. The new ideas, due to ignoring “the reality of womanliness”, are so preoccupied with the commonalities of man and woman that they forgot women and women’s rights. Thus, through ignoring women’s identity, they let women’s security vulnerable to challenge. Women who are able to play a role in a manly society do not usually achieve their all their identity from their womanliness and comply to some extent with manly social roles and functions. But, such women have to pay the expense: men consider them a threat to themselves and resist against their behavioral changes. With respect to such realities, Islam evaluates sexual gender identities of men and women apart from their biological characteristics. As a result, concentration will be on qualitative equality rather than quantitative equality.

In linguistics, linguistic gender is distinguished from the biological one. Despite the existence of a relation between the two, linguistic studies indicate that the relationship is not isomorphic. Language of the Holy Quran, also known as Classical Arabic, exhibits an extensive variation in the use and types of linguistic gender. This research provides a new classification of this type of gender, different from the ones already presented in traditional grammars of Arabic, based on the language of the Holy Quran and adopting the Markedness Theory in linguistics. The results may prove useful both in the linguistic interpretation of the Quranic verses, especially those related to women and their significance in the Holy Quran, and in offering language researchers a new and different approach to the analysis of the Arabic language and grammar.

A challenging problem in our society is modeling after religious models, which has its own cons and pros. The basic problem here is time differences between religious models and us. This paper claims that the problem can be solved by reviving religious models. In reviving them, both we can follow their life-styles and consider time circumstances. This should be done in two steps: research and report. In the stage of research, we should have two points in mind. First, studying the practices of the Infallibles should be based on their lives not researching in vacuum. Second, it should be topic-based, not based on the individual Infallibles. In the stage of report, we should pay attention to a number of points. First, we should have and explanatory orientation in reporting and avoid mere authoritative moralization. In fact, we should try to clarify the role of each principle in real life. Second, we should have a practical approach, show real examples of the principles in today’s life, and avoid merely proposing the principles. Third, we should follow a systematic approach in presentation in which we should avoid presenting the principles unsystematically and present them according to the needs of daily life.

The relationship between natural valuability and gender is among the basic researches whose results influence on a vast range of theories about women’s issues. In this paper, after presenting a definition and classification of natural valuability outside the realm of ethics and referring to some value foundations in anthropology, infrastructural orientations of the issue are determined. Then, on the basis of strong narrational arguments, the relationship is explained with reference to the Quran. Afterwards, on the basis of a philosophical approach, the paper studies essence, essentials, and the difference of man, the evaluation of the impacts of gender on it, since the most original and valuable gift of man is reason. As a result, the relationship between conceptual powers and levels of reason with gender are also explained. Then, on the basis of Mulla Sadra’s theory of Motion of Essence, the levels of the relationship between spirit and gender and the mutual impact of soul and body are explained. Finally, on the basis of a monotheist and Quranic approach, the natural valuability of woman is depicted in a different atmosphere.

Linguistics of gender is a sub-discipline of sociolinguistics, which studies the impacts of gender on linguistic varieties. Since most socio-cultural concepts, including gender, are multidimensional concepts, mono-dimensional and absolute conceptions of such concepts lead to a kind of superficiality, especially in the realm of research. The primary objective of the paper is introducing various levels of the linguistics of gender, in other words, the different aspects of gender and linguistic issues. Then, on the basis of this theoretical framework, the condition of this newly-born discipline in Iranian researches is elaborated on. However, the discipline suffers from weaknesses which include having a non-methodological limited approach, ignoring the common gender theories, considering context as multiple and separate social variables and not as a network of relations, and considering men’s linguistic behavior as a norm.

Many Sunnite scholars have written on the life and personal characteristics of the holy Fatimah and reported quotes from the Prophet about her. A study of the available traditions shows that there are no reproaches or flaws about the holy Fatimah and all respected her. In fact, not only no one was able to level any criticism against her, but all praised her instead. Even some Sunnite scholars reported the bitter events taken place after the demise of the Prophet and did not remain silent in the face of the insults and attacks against her, the disloyalty of the Muslim community, and not accomplishing their duties towards Ahl al-Bayt. Due to the pivotal role of the holy Fatimah, this paper deals with her depiction in the Sunnite sources.