The stories in Mathnavi are full of optimism and hope; to the extent that it can be said Rumi believes that happiness and exuberance are regarded as original and essential issues. As a matter of fact the human spirit is based on hope, while despair, sorrow and misery, and sadness are phenomenal and temporary. This paper is written using the attributive method and reasoning; interpreting all the elements, specially the contents and characterization of the stories. It intends to reveal this concept; that hope fully exists in the depth of Rumi's poetical stories in a manner that one fails to separate them from the essence of these works. Also the pictures in his poetries are full of concepts related to hope and its devices. In addition to the mentioned features, happiness, vitality and avoiding any sorrow is clear-cut in his poetries. Rumi's view towards nature indicates hope too. Even when he speaks of autumn, he regards it as rebirth, and resurrection of spirit and finally a preparation stage for Spring. Along with all that, Rumi relates to spring as the regrowth of nature. Despair, sorrow and sadness do not have a considrable share in his poetries.Studying the external, the internal and also the marginal music of Mathnavi Maanavi reveals that he is the poet of hope. Even abundance of -intonation-emphasizing happiness and life in creating rare or new intonation- in Rumi's Ghazals (sonnets), show a mind having tendency towards innovation, while heregards despair as a means for devastating the mind.

The title of this essay is about Mahdi Akhavan Sales’ dissatisfaction of his environment and society in which he lived. Having studied and surveyed all his verses and bringing about the reasons for his dissatisfaction, I conclude that hopelessness which is seen in some of his poems, virtually has another reason in relation with himself and his fellow countrymen in society which has showed itself in various forms, the most important of which are: raging with anger, hate and imprecation, ridicule and buffoonery, invitation to struggle and hope or lamentation, even depression and despair.

Urbanizing peripheries present a multifaceted challenge of spatial exclusion, which is influenced by individual responses and structural constraints. This paper investigates the manner in which spatial exclusion is perceived and navigated by youth (18–35) in Pakdasht, as well as its impact on their social pathways. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed thematically (Braun & Clarke). The framework is informed by Goffman’s stigma, Harvey’s spatial poverty, and theories of agency and social hope (Lueck, Bryant, & Ellard).The results indicate that exclusion is exacerbated by urban poverty, informal migrant settlements, deviance labels, inadequate infrastructure, and place-based stigma. These feelings of isolation and marginality are further exacerbated. However, the responses of young people are diverse: some internalize this marginality, while others resist by establishing new identities or remaining optimistic about their future success.The research underscores the necessity of multi-level action to address spatial exclusion in peri-urban fringes. This includes the development of inclusive urban-rural policies that address the socio-economic and cultural realities of young people, the reduction of despondency, and the enhancement of youth agency. These measures should reduce structural gaps, fight stigma, and empower local communities in planning.In conclusion, spatial exclusion in Pakdasht is not a static phenomenon; it is both reproduced through place-based inequalities and stigma and contested by youth resilience. It is essential to acknowledge the diverse strategies of young people, which range from surrender to resistance and hope, in order to develop more responsive rural-urban development plans. This research contributes to peri-urban studies by demonstrating how marginal spaces influence and are influenced by the agency and aspirations of youth.

Objectives: One of the outcomes of the ongoing urbanization in developing countries is the urbanization of poverty and the concomitant formation of informal settlements in or around mainly the large cities. These settlements are the physical manifestation of poverty and are the home for the poor who cannot afford to buy their house from the formal market and in accordance with zoning and building regulations. In spite of many common characteristics, two categories of informal settlements have been distinguished in the literature in terms of their capability to progress or regress. This article will examine the existence and the attributes of these categories in an Iranian city, named Kermanshah with around 800 thousands inhabitants, of which 150 thousands live in informal settlements and this figure is growing hastily.Method: An empirical study combining both quantitative and qualitative methods was undertaken. The necessary data and information at city scale are collected from the existing sources, such as formal documents, official reports and statistical publications, aerial and satellite pictures and previous academic researches. For the selected cases, field observations and sampling survey have been used for the quantitative data and focused group discussions have been undertaken for the qualitative data. In addition, more than thirty hours of planned and serial interviews with the informal settlers, local authorities, and experts were recorded about the concealed aspects of these settlements. The field observations have done through one and a half year, in a semi-participatory and semi-apparent manner. A major part of households data are collected through 200 questionnaires, administered in three neighbors. The analysis of collected data was done with the help of SPSS and GIS software.Findings: Fundamental differences observed amongst informal settlements which are in progressing or depressing states. Thus, the categorization of slums of hope and slums of despair is true in the case of Kermanshah city. In case of slums of hope, the socio-economic status of dwellers is improving. They are not new and are consolidated gradually with the formal part of city. Most of them were formed informal (but not necessarily illegal) on subdivided agricultural lands in or adjacent to the city, bought from big landlords. During the past decades, taking advantage of the philanthropic attitude of the state, they have been marching toward a higher level and though the relative poverty is a major issue, the absolute poverty is almost nonexistent. In case of slums of despair, the situation is vice versa. They are a minor portion of all informal settlements, squatting illegally with the support of clandestine bands. In the wake of secure tenure and lack of basic social services, the accumulation of very poor people, has created a cycle of poverty. As a result, the socio-economic and physical indicators are very low and downgrading. In contrast to conventional formulation, not all the dwellers of slums of despair are low income rural migrants, but some previously urban habitants were resettled in these pockets of poverty due to some pathological causes. The major differential factors between the two categories derive from the background of dwellers, the originating formation and the contextual socio-economic and environmental conditions, as well as the crucial effect of municipal and urban planning approach toward them.Results: Considering the importance of urban planning approach on the informal settlements, different policies for regularization and upgrading of these settlements should be employed on the basis of distinguishing their status as being a slum of hope or despair. There is an urgent need for remedies in case of slums of despair, mostly revolve around providing social services (e.g., social security, health and educational services) and income generation programs (e.g., LED and CED). In case of slums of despair, the pivotal policy should be concentrated on building citizenship through institutionalization of community efforts for physical upgrading as part of initiating good governance.

Students play a vital role in determining the future of their country, and in the case of Iran, their mental state with regard to hope and despair in planning their future has an impact on the Iranian society. For years, hope and concern about the future and the feeling of futureless Iranian society are the issues that have attracted thinkers, politicians and social activists. This article tries how to focus on the formation of hopeful or hopeless mindset of students in the prevailing constitutions in contemporary Iran. The research is qualitative in nature where interviews have been conducted with 26 female and male students from public universities in Tehran using a semi-structured questionnaire. The thematic analysis method was used for the acquired data. In this article, Ghassan Hage, a Lebanese-Australian anthropologist's conceptualization of societies as "mechanisms of production and distribution of hope" is used. The findings show that collective hope an important part is absent among research participants; they, due to the existence of systematic discrimination, are excluded from the circle of production and distribution of hope. One of the consequences of social despair among the research participants is their desire to migrate outside of Iran. Since the economic, political and social obstructions fuel the spread of social despair among the participants, the recognition of social movements and the openness of governing institutions to the economic, social and political demands of the people and efforts to fulfill these demands can help spread social hope in the community. The results of this research can deepen our view on the issue of hope among all sections of the society.

BACKGROUND: Although many studies have been carried out to address burn patients' pain and suffering, pain relief still remains an immense unsolved challenge with individual, social, and cultural aspects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was conducted aiming to investigate and explain nursing care in burn patients. This was a semifocused ethnographic research conducted in burns units in a referral teaching hospital (Mazandaran, Iran). The data were collected through descriptive, focused, and selective participant observations and ethnographic interviews with burns unit nurses selected via a purposeful sampling method. The collected data were analyzed on the basis of James Spradley's approach. RESULTS: Three main categories and nine subcategories were obtained from data analysis that are as follows: 1) Bending over backward (tenacity, altruism, dedication, and conscience and constancy), 2) Prevention is worth a pound of cure (unique clinical methods, enhanced frustration tolerance through self-motivation and self-efficacy, raise patient's hope in despair), and 3) undisputed dominance of nursing art (reduced unsettling experiences, burnt and ripped body rehabilitation, patient stress management, and avoidance of false hope). CONCLUSIONS: Although burn nurses are under huge physical and mental pressure, they enhance patients' pain tolerance through their art of nursing, which is a collection of empirical knowledge, huge work conscience, unique clinical skills, and various therapeutic communication techniques.

Literature in every period has shown and reflected the conditions of the society from the progress and decline to despair and hope of its people. Happiness and sadness are two important elements in life which are expressed in language and literature. The present study has tried to investigate the metaphors of despair and hope in the literature of the recent four decades and the impact of society on it in the most popular novels of the last four decades based on the framework of Lakoff (1980). For this purpose, four popular novels from the 60s "Nakhlhaye Bisar", 70s "Roye Mahe Khoda ra Bebos", 80s "Cheragh ha ra Man Khamosh Mikonam" and the 90s novel "Paeiz Fasle Akhar Ast" were analyzed in a descriptive-analytical way. The body of the research is sentences from all four novels, which were analyzed separately, and metaphors of high and low, which indicate hope and despair, were extracted and analyzed separately. The findings showed that in the literature of all four decades, low metaphors were used more and the highest frequency appeared in the 90s, and the conditions and atmosphere of the society were effective in the ups and downs of these metaphors.

IntroductionSemiotics has provided researchers in the immediate past years with a tool for analyzing, understanding, and criticism of literary texts and discovery of hidden meanings. Semiotics has tried to unveil, decipher, and discover the deep meanings behind the structure. Amal Donqol (a contemporary Egyptian poet) and Siavash Kasraei (an Iranian poet) lived in their turbulent times. Political and social disorders intensively influenced the content and structure of their poems. The comparative semiotic study investigates meticulously and in detail the works of the Egyptian and Iranian poets considering hope and despair. It hopes to have a better and deeper understanding of the poets’ thoughts and spirits and their influence on their poems. Moreover, the study makes the ground for better presenting of the similarities and differences of their attitudes, as they live in rather similar conditions.Using the semiotics of the application of time, place, and myths, the study investigated the duality of despair and hope  in some poems of the two poets regarding the structure and poetic language. It tried to answer the question that how despair and hope have been presented in the poems and in mentioned components and how their poetic and artistic manifestations are.  Method This descriptive-analytic study was done within the American framework of comparative literature.  DiscussionSemiology (or semiotics) is a new type of criticism that has had a great impact on literary studies and related research. This field of study interprets literary texts according to such criteria and layers as time, place, intertextuality, narration, character, etc. This study explored the place, time, and mythical characters to show the appearance of hope and despair in the selected poems. The components work as codes for the poet through which he shows his inner feelings and imposes positive or negative meaning upon them. The analysis of the signs unveils the hidden layers of meanings in a literary text and familiars readers with the world, thoughts, and feelings of its writer.Time and place as signs and their signified are various and wide in literary texts and important for reading texts. The poets have used many words showing place and time. In many cases, adverbs showing the place in Donqol and Kasraei's poems lose the characteristic of being adverb of place and become a signifier having specific signifiers. The time adverbs have also been used in this way as their poems shows the change many times. The words become positively or negatively marked as they convey the poets’ feelings.  These words convey meanings different from their place and time meanings, which engages the readership with one of the dualities of despair or hope. Myth is also an important component that imposes meaning on the meaning in works of both poets. Using and recreating the myths, the poets communicate their ideals and spirits to the audience.   Conclusion- The study investigated the duality of despair or hope in the poems of two poets based on the application of some components of the semiotics of time, place, and myths. The socio-political conditions that the two poets live in seem to be the same and their poems protest against their contemporary situation, but based on the mentioned examples one can say that when the poems have been composed, when death and despair were dominant in the mental space of poets, he optimistically expected a bright future, whereas death and despair are always dominant in Amal Danqol's poems.- As a result of the different views of the poets, time, place, and myth have a hopeful and liberating application in the poems. In Amal's poems, however, the place, time, and myth components become nightmares of fear and failure, as a result of his sad and desperate creations.- Finally, looking from semiotic analysis, it can be concluded that the fully optimistic and hopeful poems of Siavash Kasraei sometimes lack poetic fantasy and becomes similar to prose, making it a weakness of the poems. On the contrary, Amal Danqol's poems, though exaggerates in expressing darkness, they are totally strong and surprising sometimes regarding poetic beauties, creating new meanings, and linguistic deviations. -

This paper seeks to represent and analyze the hope/despair dichotomy in the novel Her Eyes by the French philosopher's ideas, Gabriel Honoré Marcel. For this purpose, first, Marcel's theoretical foundations and views are pointed out. The representation of the hope/despair dichotomy in the novel is addressed via a descriptive-analytical research method. In his most crucial philosophical achievement, i. e., “ the hope” , studies the ontology of this concept, making some divisions. He examines phenomena such as apprehension, fear, and anxiety with an existentialist view of man, associated with despair. In Marcel's view, hope is born from the bed of suffering, and it is in the presence of despair that hope is possible. So hope and despair are in confrontation and dialectic with each other. The research findings show that hope and despair in the novel Her Eyes are always in conflict, and the existing suffering and despair eventually turn to hope. Despite the novel's desperate atmosphere, the motif “ hope” is represented as the dominant element, with themes such as love, protest and transformation.

This paper is intended to review an academic book through a critical-analytical approach. The book, “ Intellectuals of Iran: Despair and Hope Narrations” , is a sociological one written as a textbook for students of different fields of social and political sciences in Iran and in the world along the course of the development of the intellectual movement in contemporary Iran. Accordingly, the writer has tried to criticize and evaluate different aspects of the book such as its form, method, and theoretical and scientific contents to find out whether it is worthy of being regarded as a source of political sociology of Iran or as a general source for interested people. This will also pinpoint its value for academic addressees. The book is generally a valuable one containing positive features. Nevertheless, there are formal and methodological deficiencies, as well as some theoretical and scientific inadequacies which will hopefully be resolved in further editions and will provide a suitable text for the students.