Women's Press in Iran: A Model for Study

Both language and role of the press in general are affected by “political power” and “civil society”, the two factors that are in turn shaped by political culture of the elite and conflict resolution mechanisms of the society. This framework that can be presented in a descriptive and analytic model can be used for the study of women’s press in different historical periods.Women’s press, since early twentieth century, has played an important role in the history of the press in Iran. This role can be seen in the 1940s and 1950s periods that were marked by a dispersal of power and fortification of civil society.The paper assumes that for the process of development of women’s press a “powerful civil society” is more effective than “dispersal of political power”. Basing on the same assumption, two important women’s magazines of the 1940s and 1950s were selected for study. Zan-e-Emrooz (Today’s Woman) from the early 1940s and Hoghoogh-e-Zanan (Women’s Rights) from the early 1950s are the products of two different situations in terms of the distribution of political power. The first was marked by a weak central political power while the second was marked by powerful struggle of the people for establishment of civil liberties.The paper continues with a secondary analysis of the critical discourse analysis of the two magazines to describe the divergences and differences between the two magazines. Finally, a framework for the study of the women’s press in Iran is introduced.