A Cultural Analysis of Feminism in Post-Modern Persian Novels

Women comprise half of the world population and having their own intrinsic capabilities, they play a crucial role in man’s evolution, training the generations, emotional management of the family and cultural dynamism. Today, women as a huge social group seek their rights and demands within the framework of a gender-oriented discourse and feministic tendencies. Following a political and legal approach, feminism attempts to regain women’s forfeited rights, eliminate gender discrimination and challenge male-oriented discourse and representations of patriarchy and it has managed to spread its notions and demands as a universal discourse to all parts of the world. Today, feminism presents its most dynamic and extensive form in association with postmodernism. To spread their ideas, feminists have utilized the artistic and literary potentials of novel as the most influential device and medium. Some postmodern Iranian novels have dealt with the issue of women, too. In this study, the findings achieved from the content analysis of some postmodern Persian novels suggest that their authors believe in some essential feministic concepts and elements such as women’s backwardness, cruelty to women, women’s rights, women’s freedom, social inequality, which, in turn, suggest that some social realities have influenced the modern Iranian society’s outlook towards women and as long as such attitudes exist in the thought system and structure of the society, radical feministic approaches and extremist tendencies towards gender issues will lead to the intensification of this outlook in Persian novels and its cultural and educational outcomes in the community.