The Discourse Analysis of Rouhani’s Speeches on Women’s Problems

Women’s issues have always been among the most controversial topics in various fields of study, especially in policy making. Accordingly, the two main discourses of the Islamic Republic of Iran, namely the fundamentalist and the reformist ones, have formed their own specific discourse. Rouhani’s moderate discourse, passing the two major ones, claims to have a balanced approach towards women’s issues. The aim of this study has been to explore the articulation of women’s cause in the present moderate presidency of Iran through discourse analysis. Laclau and Mouffe’s approach was used for this purpose. The data analysis showed that “gender equality” has been the nodal point of Rouhani’s discourse. Moreover, such issues as “chastity centrality”, “the equivalence of public and private spaces”, “meta-traditional social roles”, “the Islamic-revolutionary rereading of gender”, “women’s widespread social presence as a non-security issue” are the critical points which have been joint together around the nodal point mentioned above. It also seems that the discourse of moderation is rather socio-economical than political (regarding the reformists) or cultural (regarding the fundamentalists). However, the sum of the points under emphasis has more to do with the reformist discourse than the fundamentalist one