A Re-reading of Motherland (Mam-e Vatan) Rug from the Perspective of Social Semiotics

The representation of Iran in the image of a woman in written or visual works from the Qajar era and the Pahlavi dynasty has been common. The pictorial rug, known as Motherland (Mam-e Vatan), is one of these works. The aim of this research is the understanding of meanings found in the visual elements of the studied text, especially Motherland Rug, with a reference to pretexts and historical-social changes. The research seeks to answer this question: which meanings can be implied by each represented visual element and their combination in a semiotic system? To answer this question, Kress and Van Leeuwen's social semiotic method was used. This method was used to understand the aspects and the social function of the visual signs of the above-mentioned rug. On the one hand, it was indicated that the construction of the aforementioned rug tried to justify Pahlavi's rise to power; on the other hand, it designated that its nature was ideological and biased. The results of this research also revealed the articulation of a dominant political discourse in the rug’s texture due to the presence of the visual elements of motherland. They also revealed a nostalgic semantic level in the text through its consecrating of the past and its redefinition. Among other findings of this research was the role the rug played in creating legitimacy for the formation of masculine political power through redistributing an image of feminine weakness, implied by image of the motherland in the society, spread in formats such as posters, calicos, print curtains, and pictorial rugs. It was also revealed that the text in its visual elements had been influenced by European pretexts. Furthermore, it was found that the deployed method, due to the inspiration of the study by ancient reliefs, had limitations in describing the meaning of the text.