The construction of feminist discourse in Iran (1992-2011)

The construction of feminist discourse in Iran (1992-2011)The purpose of this research is to study the discourse of feminist socio-political activists. The data of our research are gathered from Zanan (women) and the Feminist School magazines. Therefore we looked at the feminist discourse in the texts of these magazines from 1992 to 2011. We also have used the historical and social data of Iran over this period. The results show that the basic structure of the discourse of feminism represents five different articulations. Each of the articulations was formed on the basis of five various nodal points; women's economic participation, religious innovation, human rights, Secular religiosity, and Inter-movement coalition. Often the main antagonist between the feminist discourse and the dominant discourse is over unequal gender laws. This is due to the different perceptions of femininity in the two discourses. Eventually, this antagonist led to a shift in the discourse of feminism from a democratic discourse to a popular one.