فصلنامه مطالعات راهبردی زنان
پیاپی 28 (تابستان 1384)

Fore a long time, traditional extremists and radicals dominated discussions about issues which influenced women and their roles in the society. In this respect, some radical feminists related “the suppression of women” to motherhood and claimed that women’s most common problems were due to their biological capability for reproduction. Traditional extremists, too, emphasizing on unreal solutions, limited women to traditional roles such as homemaking and taking care of children. Both traditional and radical feminists have cheated modern women. Placing women in a limited and tense ideological situation, they have shown that they are unaware of the needs and problems of modern women. This paper evaluates the subject matters, challenges, and limitations of motherhood and the writer, emphasizing on the fact that motherhood is not merely a biological feature but that it is a social matter, tries to place her sociological analyses in a policy-making environment and come to the conclusion that how social policy-makers can improve women’s conditions with respect their experience of life.

Abortion has always been a controversial issue for criminologists. Some feminists have absolutely accepted this social phenomenon and believe that it should be completely free to practice it. On the other hand, some under no condition allow abortion due to religious causes. The Imamiyyeh jurisprudents believe in the relative freedom of abortion and in some cases allow it. In the Iranian system of law, whose rules and regulations are based on the Imamiyyeh jurisprudence, abortion is forbidden and, according to the Islamic penal law, it has punishments. This is quite against the Western legal systems which consider abortion as an indication of women’s honor and freedom. After defining and classifying abortion and studying factors influential on it, this paper studies the arguments of the opponents and proponents of abortion among the Imamiyyeh jurisprudents before and after the infusion of spirit into the body. The paper also presents the views of the feminists who agree and disagree with the freedom of abortion. Afterwards, the paper evaluates the abortion law before and after the Islamic revolution and finally mentions the existing legal vacuums and proposes suggestions to remove them.

As a socio-political movement, feminism has had various impacts on different epistemological domains, especially the epistemology itself. Feminist theoreticians, claiming that the contemporary epistemology is not realistic, tried to show that the mainstream epistemology had masculine orientations. Thus, they prepared the grounds for their own kind of epistemology, emphasizing on the impacts of social and sexual factors and sympathy on knowledge and on the priority of women’s viewpoints. After explaining and depicting the characteristics of contemporary epistemology, the present paper elaborates on the above issues and, then, criticizes the feministic epistemology in two sections: in the first section, after clarifying a formative fallacy and showing that there is no scientific argumentation in the above issues, the paper denies the existence of masculine orientations in the contemporary epistemology. Finally, the paper rejects the impact of social factor, relationship and sympathy on knowledge to create epistemological relativism and anarchy and, hence, challenges feministic epistemology.

According to lesbian feminism, unequal sexual relationship is the most important oppression men commit against women and the only solution to the problem is women’s homosexuality, sexual freedom, and freedom from familial restrictions. Briefly introducing the theses of this feminist group, this paper enumerates some of their activities in order to disseminate and naturalize this behavior through various informational, organizational, and technical tools. Finally, after mentioning the results of some scientific researches and studies and cases of the prohibition of this act in monotheist religions, the paper elaborates on some of the aftermaths of homosexuality on physical, spiritual, and social health of women, such as the disintegration of family, the decline of morality, the destruction of women’s identity, and the emergence of sickly sexual orientation.

Employment is among the individual rights, which is included in the constitution of many countries. Article 28 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, too, is devoted this issue. Jurisdiction is one the particular positions over which jurisprudents disagree whether women can occupy or not. When studying the sources of disagreement, one comes to legal and social barriers. However, since now the condition of Ijtihad for jurisdiction is not necessary, it seems that there is no serious barrier for women to occupy a jurisdiction position. This paper briefly studies subjects such as the historical background of jurisdiction by women, jurisdiction in jurisprudence (Fiqh), the views of the proponents and opponents, and jurisdiction by women in case law.

Among the various cultural, social, political, and economical factors which played a part in the emergence of feminism, the role of the religion was the most crucial one. As a result of the deep influence of religion in Europe and the discriminatory attitude of the Scriptures and the church authorities towards sex, women’s movement inclined to, first, subjective interpretations and justifications of Christianity teachings and, then, a complete denial and rejection of Christianity and gradually adopted a oppositional stance towards the Scriptures. This paper briefly surveys the course of the development of women’s movement and the anti-religious stance of the first group of feminists such as the Saloon Feminists, the Blue Stockings Society, women and freemason loges, and the Quillers. Finally, to study the impacts of the aforementioned groups on feminism, the paper briefly explains the theses of three main figures of the movement, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, and Simon de Boire.

Although prostitution has a long history in the past, nowadays, sexual services has turned to a complex multidimensional issue for the justification of which many theories have been presented. The profitability of the widespread sex industry which includes different types of sex slavery, pornography, lesbianism, and exploitation of women and children has lured systems of power and domination towards theoretical and practical justifications. Thus, some branches of feminism under the guise of defending women's rights, making them free, and giving them the right to control their bodies have adopted a pro-prostitution stance. This paper critically introduces and evaluates the viewpoints of different feminist approaches to prostitution.

Zeynab’s ethereal personality is both a symbol of exalted Islamic mysticism and indicative of women’s status in these pure and original teachings. Comparing the four mystical journeys with Zeynab’s journey in Karbala can be an illustrious example for mystics both in theory and in practice. Thus, on the basis of historical and narrative evidence, this paper tries to shed light on her spiritual characteristics such as the interpreter of monotheism, the bearer of the secrets of Allah’s Blood, the free lover of Allah, the fountain of pure knowledge, and the conqueror of spiritual positions. In so doing, the paper is to present a new interpretation of the relationship between woman and mysticism.

To execute the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the United Nations Organization ratified the Beijing Document which emphasizes on teaching women’s rights. Despite the fact that Iran had not joined the convention yet, but in order to enforce its articles, governmental and non-governmental organizations have started to teach the enactments of the United Nations in the country since 2000. The goal behind teaching these rights to women and girls is an attempt to revise, modify, or create laws in accordance with the instructions of the Beijing Document. With regard to some of the articles of the Beijing Document, this paper tries to evaluate some of the training pamphlets prepared in Iran, reviewing the procedure of these teachings in the country from 2000 to 2004.