فصلنامه مطالعات راهبردی زنان
پیاپی 18 (زمستان 1381)

In an interview about “Islamic Government and Social Deviations”, Dr. Mohammad-Javad Arasta, emphasizing the critical role of justice in the structure of governments, elaborates on the reasons of their failure to actualize justice. From his point of view, human societies’ negligence of divine revelations and complete resorting to mere human experiences are the major causes of the failure to actualize justice. Thus, the only way for the actualization of justice and prevention of oppression and corruption is the implementation of divine laws and the ruling of just rulers, materialized in the structure of Islamic government. (The ideal type of such government will be actualized at the time the Savior, Imam Mahdi). At the end of the interview, he enumerates and explains the ideal characteristics of rulers, such as: simple life, honesty, efficient management, popularism, etc.

This article studies part of the Islamic penal code related to crimes against public morality and modesty with respect to articles 637-640 of the Islamic penal code based on library and field research. The results of the research show that some common crimes such as prostitution, earning money through obscene acts, the smuggling of women etc. are dealt with neither in the previous law (before the Islamic Revolution of Iran, 1979) nor in the present law. In addition, in the Islamic punishment law some articles are so generally defined that include a wide range of crimes - a fact that results in the inappropriateness of crime and punishment. This not only is inconsistent with the logic of the limited interpretation of the punishment law, but also makes the punishments lose their preventive effects. As a result, sometimes we may not be able to find an appropriate punishment for a specific crime, leading to the acquittance of the criminal. In conclusion, the reformation and completion of the Islamic punishment law and the provision of security and educational measures seem to be necessary for the prevention of crimes.

A healthy society is the one which enjoys physical, economic, psychological, social position and value security. Otherwise, the society will be abnormal. Therefore, with respect to the five characteristics mentioned above, social deviations can be classified into five categories, each one having its own characteristics. The most significant norms in an Islamic society are those related to the security of values and moralities. Whatever endangers the security of values and moralities is a deviation from the norms. Although other types of deviations may also harm social values and principles in an Islamic society, the effect of their harm on the five categories is more distinctive. Based on a Quranic perspective, this article is to briefly analyze and explain deviations from values_ deviations such as atheism, polytheism, apostasy, deceitfulness, innovation in religion, doubting religious matters, accepting the authority of the aliens, seeking worldly pleasure, religious negligence, empiricism, sexual deviations, and alcoholic drinks etc.

Having presented a definition of social deviation and its different aspects, Dr. Emad Afroogh draws a distinction between incompatible behaviors and abnormal behaviors. Then, some of the causes of the emergence and expansion of the social deviations in religious governmet are explained. Subsequently, he elaborates on cultural notions such as pretending rather than considering the real content of actions, cultural insensitivity of the authorities, the expansion of the domain of the permitted, the instability of values, the uninstitutionalization of the Islamic values, the emergence of an anomic situation, and the lack of ethical commitment. Finally, some suggestions are proposed to confront social deviations.

Nowadays, communications analysts, admitting the outstanding capability of mass media in forming the opinions, attitudes, and behaviors of people, carry out researches to evaluate the influence mass media have on people. They believe that mass media because of having negative functions and violating the limits of media ethics may endanger the moral and mental health of societies and reinforce abnormal behaviors. But, if properly used, they can also delimit the occurrence of social deviations. This article is to explain some of the functions of mass media as mentioned above and, finally, propose suggestions for strengthening the positive functions of media to prevent social deviations.

Man as a social being can play his appropriate role in the society, only if there be an order in his social interactions, and the realization of the order is possible if every one follows the social norms. When the violation of the norms overcomes, social deviations emerge. Then, serious measures should be taken to prevent them. Liberalism, because of its particular view, removes all limitations from man. In fact, liberalism tries to materialize social order by means of law codification and social contraction. This liberal approach faces a number of challenges. But, according to the Islamic approach, by accepting religious and social responsibilities, man exonerates himself from many constraints and thereby the social order materializes. In this type of society social deviations can be controlled by means of divine supervision as well as other usual measures.

Protection of basic cultural values is one of the main objectives of national security. Accordingly, one of the main functions of any cultural system is securing social life, constituting social identity, and finally creating and preserving social solidarity. Therefore, social deviations_ behaviors deviating from the social values_ on the one hand, derange the healthy functioning of culture and society and, on the other hand, prevent the realization of cultural security goals. So, social deviations can be studied as both a social problem and a security problem, each one having its own particular characteristics and underlying assumptions. The basic objective of this paper is to present a brief study of social deviations and social security based on the “anomie paradigm” in sociology. First, there is a definition of key terms, followed by a discussion over social deviations in terms of a threat or a security problem. Finally, there comes an explanation of the relationship between social deviations and the insecurity in the world at the time of globalization and the information revolution.

The deviation of man and society from moderation results in corruption on the basis of which forbidding laws are codified in Islam. Only expert Faqihs (jurisprudents) can find out the advantages and disadvantages of such laws with respect to the general objectives of the Islamic Shari’a. This paper intends to study corruption from the approach of Fiqh and to answer the following questions: How wide is the range of corruption in Fiqh? Does Fiqh include all cases of personal and social corruption? Does it consider all such cases as crimes? What are the criteria for the recognition of corruption? After the above questions being answered briefly, some real examples of corruptions in the society are discussed over with an emphasis on corruptions endangering social chastity. Specifically, there is a discussion over cases of corruption related to women because women are subject to corruption more than men.

Religion is the strongest and hardest rope of Allah to which only man can resort and by which he/she can reach the highest position i.e. Allah’s viceroy on the earth. But, the fundamental question is how religion can increase man’s capabilities and make him/her secure against earthly desires and carnal temptations. Relying on social sciences, this article intends to propose an answer to the question. Generally speaking, it is the responsibility of all religious teachings and precepts to secure man against the dangers of such carnal desires, with all religions apparently having different forms but enjoying a single spirit. According to a more specific point of view, one can identify two religious strategies to do so, one theoretical and the other practical. Theoretically, religion depicts the limits of the good and evil, the positive and negative rewards, and proposes religious teachings. Practically, religion paves the way through the enforcement of the good and the prohibition of the evil. Although some of the above issues seem to be personal and some social, all are interwoven.