The Discourse of Pure Society: Deconstruction of the Policy of Displaying Female Body in Pahlavi Era

The article studies the resistance discourse versus the quasi-modernity of Pahlavi regime. The surveillance pattern of female body is the main focus of the study of both the structure of the dominant discourse and the residance discourse. Using Foucalt’s theory on power and body relations and discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, the study attempts to draw meaning borders constructed around female body in social-political conflicts before the revolution. This study indicates that by conducting the White Revolution, the second Pahlavi tried to Westernize Iranian society to with a focus on displaying female body. This discourse which was spreading and developing in the context of society was assaulted by the traditional margins of society; the confrontation of these two discourses led to the emergence of a third discourse which due to its figurative power became one of the effective factors in the victory of the revolution. Through the rejection of both tradition and modernity in their conventional meaning, this discourse created a new pattern and meaning system of females body and gender relation and could reunite most groups under its metaphoric cover for creation of a utopian society.