Special spaces and participation of women in leisure activities

This research aims to analyze the influence of leisure spaces such as Bheheshte madaran on various aspects of women’s leisure time including ways of spending this time, hours devoted to leisure activities, reasons of doing so etc., and also assess their level of satisfaction with and contribution to such places. The aforementioned park was established as the first park especially meant for women. Since there is not much research done in this field, this research can be a starting point in the study of these spaces. At first the information was gathered through librarian methods and secondary sources. Afterwards, 93 park-users were interviewed through questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS, and then through Phi- Kramer, and Spearman tests the relationship of some variants such as age, education, and job, with women’s leisure time were investigated and their significances were discussed. Results revealed satisfaction of women with establishing of similar parks; and the performance of this park was generally evaluated as positive. Furthermore, outcomes demonstrated a significant relationship between the education level and the leisure time hours. In general, given the satisfaction of women with these kinds of spaces, this type of park can be considered as a paradigm for spaces especial for women in the Islamic countries and can work as an inducer to more effective way of spending leisure time and more cooperation in leisure activities. Needless to say, provision of activities that are effective for women in these parks is an issue authorities should attend to.