Semantic Transformation of the Family in the Documents of the Economic, Social and Cultural Development Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The family is an intermediary institution between the individual and society. In the family institution, the result of individual changes is transferred to the society and individuals are also affected by the changes in the society. Therefore, the family is a valuable element for society. If society and governments ignore the changes of family and members and ignore it in the context of the institutional desire for stability, or if the family don’t pay attention to the goals of society and the state, this institution will be a place of conflict and disagreement between governments and individuals. This research seeks to trace the semantic transformation of the family in the documents of the Economic, Social and Cultural Development Law of Iran after the Islamic Revolution. The reason for choosing upstream documents is the wide scope of policy, as well as the timing of its implementation (five years), which governments will usually be involved in implementing and writing. Therefore, these written documents can be used to examine the meaning of the family from the perspective of the government that wrote the documents, the government that enforces it, and the government that drafts the new development plan, and the differences in attitudes and policies for the family.

This study has examined the six published documents of development after the Islamic Revolution using qualitative method and using content analysis method. These documents has fully read, and all clauses related to the family, women, men, children, marriage, divorce, population, etc. were extracted and classified. By re-reading and reviewing the categorized clauses, they provided a context for the abstraction of categories, concepts, and sub-concepts, the traces of which can be identified in the set of development documents.

The findings of this study show that there are three general concepts throughout the six development documents about the family: audience loss, non-determination policy, and attitudes toward family attitudes. Together, these three components create a space to create a balanced family version that means the family serves the goals and policies of government and society. Creating a balanced family means a kind of semantic stability in the family, which is done by neglecting the objective and mental changes of the family, its evolved functions, as well as the role-attitude change of its members (men and women and gender developments).

Governments offer their programs, services, and supports to their balanced families. Other forms of family are considered to be a kind of standard deviation from the family level and are not considered by governments, while they may be objectively related to the lived experience of social actors. Therefore, the semantic evolution of the family in the historical course of these documents can be interpreted as the tendency to stability.