نشریه هفت شهر
پیاپی 61 (بهار و تابستان 1397)

Great number of studies have been conducted regarding “Quality of Life” in different fields of science. Today, information on quality of life’s related factors is more than ever. However, with increasing knowledge, complexity of the concept has been more revealed. As a result, for a full grasp of its definitions and considering synonym terminologies, many new questions have been raised. The present article based on accessible research reports aims at gaining a comprehensive understanding of the quality of life concept and its different domains. Very briefly, it deals with the history of quality of life in different scientific perspectives. Through a review of the studies on relations and interconnectedness of objective and subjective aspects of life, “Interactive Model“ for understanding quality of life is discussed. Research findings of recent decades, provides evidences that the effects of social, psychological, economical and environmental variables on overall satisfaction of life or variety of its domains  (such as work, family, health, housing, social relationsand …) differs among societies as well as social groups. It seems with continuous changes of factors related to quality of life, in addition to individuals’ unique experiences of the world, and changes resulted from passage of time, we should not expect a single pattern of “Good Life“ for everybody and everywhere. Individuals’ quality of life to a great extend depends on social, cultural and values of the society and thereby it is a contextual phenomenon.

Increasing awareness about deprivation of the half of the world’s population’s from human rights and negligence of their needs as well as participation in decision makings which affects their quality of life, have encouraged researches to look for the related factors of such a situation. In addition, it has confronted policy makers with serious challenges for elimination of hindrance for equal access to resources and benefits of development.
Thus to help policy makers, programs have been initiated to manifest gender inequalities in life’ domaines through development of different indicators. In the last decades, as the search for more appropriate indicators with women’s situation has continued, for a better understanding of gender inequalities in objective and subjective aspects of life, national surveys on quality of life with samples representing the whole population have been conducted and gender analysis of findings is presented, mostly in developed countries.
A review of the publications based on data from national surveys (accessible ones) on Japan, Russia, Australia, Britannia, America, Romani, Singapore, and countries of European Union reports differences in women and men’s quality of life and different degree of their life satisfaction. In few countries, women are happier than men are and in some others, men are more satisfied from their lives. It seems the reasons behind gender differences in quality of life is not due to the sex of individuals, but rather social and cultural context of the societies.

Gender researchers argue that the idea of the right to the city needs redefinition based on the concept of gender and reality of women’s urban life, due to its shortcoming to recognize gender differences. The present article aims at investigating significant theoretical and practical works, which have explained, and analyzed women’s quality of urban life based on the idea of the right to the city. After a review of Henry Lefebvre’s concept, the article has focused on 1- research of Tovi Fenster on the right to the gendered city, 2- the conceptual model of Gilroy and Booth on women’s quality of life in neighborhoods and 3- a prominent practical experience (13 Aban Women’s Association). In conclusion, women’s right to the city should be considered in three main levels, each with specific feminine criteria and requirements: accessibility, creativity and participation.

Different methods of spatial zoning of houses built in different periods of history suggest that regardless of geographical factors, social- cultural contexts also contribute to the formation of meaning and functional connotations of a building. Undoubtedly, a house built in an era exceeds its instrumental role of providing a shelter and has a crucial role in identifying the norms of living in that era. Looking into the way a house is constructed offers us different opportunities for the observation of femininity/masculinity opposition in their structures, which in turn has a decisive role in the representation of gender identity.The present article aims at identifying gender subjects in dominant discourse, to discover the dual mechanisms of female/male representations and women’s exclusion and gender segregation of space in the architecture styles. Discussion follows: (1) how female body is controlled, excluded and represented as “other” in the spacing and zoning of the architecture styles. (2) Inspired by the writings of Foucault, private and public spaces are discussed in their relations to the state’s power to understand possible subversion of gendered spaces. Based on the review of the architectural style in the Qajar era; it seems introversive houses segregate genders and represent interior parts of the house as being female-oriented and the exterior parts as male-oriented, and the houses are designed to prepare women for their roles as mothers and housewives which in traditional discourse are considered their most important roles. Women who fail in carrying out their duties are excluded from social femininity. At present with patriarchal structure of society, women have limited access to public spaces, facilities and services. Therefore, it seems regulations to discipline space manifests itself in gender segregation and women social exclusion.

Development of favorable public urban spaces plays a significant role in realization of sustainable development through considering requirements, real possibilities and people participation  in the city. Historically, urban spaces have displayed gendered nature due to their architectural style; meaning urban spaces practically  have restricted women’s free mobility leading to their spatial exclusion. Thus, not only women  have been deprived of access to public urban spaces but also they have been excluded from social activities and participation. In recent decade, in Iran programs have been implemented to create women- only spaces seeking women’s satisfaction in metropolises such as  Tehran. Spaces like wagons, buses, women- only parks and welfare complexes are allocated to female population with different  objectives  to create womanly urban spaces, remove their spatial  exclusion and enhance their safety. This paper reviews womanly urban spaces theoretically, and  presents pro and cons regarding gender segregation in urban spaces and its impact on women’s  quality of life. It seems none of the approaches has provided enough evidences to support their views. Proponents emphasize women’s safety, its impact on women’s life and opportunities for  women’s active presence in public spaces; on the  other hand, opponents consider reproduction of  traditional gender segregation, women’s spatial  exclusion of public urban spaces and women’s passive citizenship. Seemingly, positive function  of such spaces partially is acceptable, if creating  gendered urban spaces results in entitlement  of women to choose between segregated/ not segregated spaces to meet their needs in public domins. However, gendered spaces may be considered merely as a temporary solution in  transition period for normalization of women’s  social activities in masculine cities. 

Street harassment is increasing according to official statistics. Review of headlines in 160 pages of  ”Iran“, ”Etemaad“ and ”Jaame jam“ newspapers in two years of 1395/2016 and 1396/2017 shows that street harassment has approximately risen 12 percent. Male hegemony is the main cause of street harassment in urban spaces, which affects  women’s quality of life, the most important of which is feeling insecure. The purpose of present article is to explain causes and consequences  of street harassments within an analytical and  descriptive approach. Documents are reviewed  and data collected through interviews with 15 women aged 22 to 50 years  Studies report that childhood education, reference groups' activities, abusers’ socialization and  family are effective in nurturing this behavior.  From Feminism point of view, women in patriarchal systems are considered ”others“ and this attitude can charge street harassments against  females. Abuses are rooted in public culture and male dominated societies, while in mega  cities due to the multiplicity of subcultures and  concealment of the abusers’ identity, more harassments are observed. In addition, structure  of cities such as Tehran has escalated male domination and deterioration of women’s security.  In summary street harassment, not only lead to women’s fear and pessimism, but also can be a factor in reduction of their social participation  and destruction of gender identity. It seems sexual harassment in public space is a function of  male domination in private sphere.

With regard to accepted differences between  women and men, and gender relations affected  by social and cultural context of communities,  different quality of life is expected. The only  reliable source to examine validity of this expectation is to review articles in scientific journals  published in Iran. The aim of this paper is to look for gender analysis in quality of life articles.  Journals are the main documents and content analysis is applied. Searches are carried out with the keyword of “quality of life” in scientific journals of different fields (in Farsi) in the period of  2001- 2017 )1380- 1396(. In total, 98 papers found with quality of life title. These articles were published in different  scientific fields and review shows researchers  mostly in urban studies have been interested in this domain. Five papers reported the effects  of gender on quality of life and only one paper evaluated men and women’s individual/ social indices and compared their viewpoints on quality of life in urban spaces. In general, the focus of researches are on physical and environmental issues of the cities and other scientific fields have  neglected studies on quality of life. In addition, in  the limited number of articles women’s quality  of life and their problems are ignored. Therefore, it seems gender analysis is absent in the last decade’s researches and published articles.

Color is one of the most important elements in urban landscape, which its intuition depends  on a variety of objective and subjective factors.  Color, in different situations, can affect psychological conditions of people and their quality  of life. The urban colorful landscape includes various sections of building facades, flooring, and  furniture as fixed and semi-permanent elements,  and the color of clothing and vehicles of citizens  as moving elements in space. Significance of  urban colorful landscape in Iran is due to neutrality of colors used in the buildings, in addition  to women’s generally dark colors of clothing or vehicle. Therefore, the image of the cities are  completely neutralized with dark and dead colors. Such a color palette can lead to depression  of the citizens. Studies have been conducted at  the world’s color research institutes on women’s  color preferences. However , theoretically and  practically this is a novel topic in Iran.  The present article, through an overview of  colorful urban landscape with a gender sensi tive approach, presents an example of urban  landscape color analysis by application of Image  Color Analyzer and compares images of selected locations in Iran and foreign countries.   Impact  indicators of the study are extracted. Women’s desired colors for clothes and vehicles against their color selection for public appearances and  cars is evaluated and analyzed. 300 female residence of the city of Tehran constitutes the sample of the study. Based on the finding; women  prefer most luminous colors for their clothing or vehicle. However, due to societal norms, they are not willing to try on cloths with their favorable colors and mostly use dark and dead colors. Strategies to intervene in the cities’ colorful landscape with emphasize on women’s preferences are proposed in the last section of the article.

In this article, we tried to measure the quality  of life in the new city of Baharestan, with an emphasis on the gender variable )comparing the women and men’s quality of life(. The quality of life in the cities of Europe questionnaire has  been used to measure the quality of life, which is designed by the Department of Urban and Regional Policy of the European Commission, the European Union. The questionnaire is based on  components of “people’s satisfaction whit living  in their city“, ”people’s views about their city“, “people’s satisfaction whit living in their city in  relation whit environment” and “people’s satisfaction whit personal situation”. In this paper, the  survey method has been used. The statistical  population of this study is the total number of  men and women aged 18-65 that living in four phases of Baharestan in 1396. Multistage cluster sampling with sample size 1000 people was obtained by Cochran formula. Results show that the quality of life score in the new city of Baharestan )0-100( is 43.6. Among the components of quality of life, “people’s satisfaction whit living  in their city in relation whit environment” with  a score of 53.6 has a better status than other  components. Other components of the quality of life were: “people’s satisfaction whit living in  their city“ )35.2 score(, ”people’s views about their city” (33.6 score), and “people’s satisfaction  whit personal situation” with a score of 51.9.  Score of quality of life is 43.2 in men and 44.1 in women. Therefore, in this study, according to quality of life score and T-test results, there is no significant difference in the quality of life from  the views of responsive women and men in the new city of Baharestan.

Security is one of the major concerns in daily movement of women. Generally, public transportation means –such as metro and bus- are  relatively more secure compared with semi-public transportation means like shared taxi and van.  Public transportation in Iran is not efficient and  integrated enough to be sufficient for daily activities. This weakness is even more problematic  for women who generally have more complicated and various travel behavior compared with men, with relatively less access to private cars.  A major part of each trip relates to the station  and its peripheral area and the way it is designed. ”Transit Oriented Development“ )TOD( as a contemporary planning approach focuses on the interrelationship of settlement development  and public transportation, and introduces basic  urban design principles such as walkability, mix use and physical and social mixture, to provide a platform to enhance women presence and access to public transportation. The present paper  uses the physical criteria of TOD Standard joint  with mental concepts of interviews with local women to evaluate security of Ekbatan Metro Station area. The results indicate that majority  of interviewees prefer walking as a means to access the station and usually travel in day time  and in more crowded areas. As a conclusion, some strategies based one TOD principles have been introduced to enhance women presence both in day and night time.

Introduction of two concepts of social justice  and equal opportunities intends to bestow citizen rights to all members of the society. In this regard, inclusive design by fulfilling physical and  psychological needs of all, regardless of their gender and physical/mental abilities, aims at  enhancing citizens’ quality of life. At present, older women face more social, psychological and security problems in physical environment compared to other women and elderly population. In case ofproviding  equal  opportunities and attractive, safe, clean and   accessible environment in the community, older women’s social cohesion will be enhanced and results in extended social relations as well  as increasing hope to enjoy a dissent living. In addition, chances of safe and independent travel  would encourage their willingness to leave home and benefit from communities facilities. Present  paper with a descriptive research method and  review of documents first looks into the needs  and physical, mental, social and environmental  expectations of older women then, concepts  of inclusive design in neighborhood including accessibility, safety, pedestrian oriented and readability will be fully described . Strategies and propositions within the inclusive design approach constitutes the last section of the article.  The results of the study suggests; designing urban environment based on principles of inclusive design can improve the living conditions of  citizens ,especially older women and provides  opportunities for their safe and independent  presence in urban spaces.

Although mega city of Tehran has been a leading city in research projects and implementation  of different socio- cultural urban programs, it  faces many inter-related problems in many areas, especially in its social fabrics. To cope with these problems, since 2007 urban regeneration  programs have been in order for ten years. The main objective of urban planners in carrying out  these programs is to move towards more desired social life in the region. Review of regeneration programs shows; planners have neglected the sense of belonging to the living environment and its impact on quality of life. While it is an important factor, which enhances interests to the community and affects  residents’ quality of life. The present paper aims at discussing factors affecting reduction of this sense in Harandi  neighborhood known as Darvaze Ghar in the region 12 of Tehran. This area experiences many problems, including loosing sense of belonging, which is considered a driving, force for social development. The research is conducted with quantitative and  qualitative methods. First; criterion of sense of  belonging to the living environment among women and men have been defined. Secondly,  quality of life’s patters in the period of 1390-1395  is described. Based on the findings, the most  important factors in reducing sense of belonging among men and women of Harandi are: presence of social deviances, illegal economic activities, and negligence of responsible organizations  to deliver improved services in the region. It is suggested that planners and urban managers should take into account women’s role in planning and implementation of the programs. Also  provision of security, accessibility of services in compliance with male and female residents’ life styles, assessment of the needs and social- economic empowerment of the population should  be included continuously in all programs.

Quality of life is a multi-level concept that is  vague and non-transparent, nonetheless, as a final reference it has a high popularity in the  evaluation of social policies. Women in cities  are more marginalized than men in the field  of policy making and planning to improve the quality of life and this is clearly visible in Iran and Tehran. In district 2 of Tehran municipality, Because of its vastness, there are significant differences between the southern neighborhoods compared to northern neighborhoods in terms of the macro indicators of quality of life. These widespread differences have had a significant  impact on the quality of life of women living in this region. A study have done with aimed at understanding, interpreting and presenting  suggestions for improving the quality of daily life  of women in the city, and especially in the district 2 of Tehran Municipality and This article, based  on the field data from the scheme of Women’s  Atlas, reports the quality of life of women living in this district. The study method is a combination  type (quantitative and qualitative) and data will  be analyzed in a combination form.  Findings of the research show that the highest level of satisfaction from quality of life components is related to women’s capabilities and  capacities and the most their dissatisfaction is  about the field of spending leisure time.  The results of the study illustrative the differentiation and separation of the status of quality  of life, based on the three social, cultural and physical contexts in this district and In this regard, the most important requirements for improving the quality of life, its threatening factors and type of satisfaction with quality of life, are distinct  and recognizable.

Social capital is a spiritual and an intellectual dimension of the community, which has received considerable attention in development debates  over the past decades. The present viewpoint indicates the importance of the role and influence  of components on and relationships with other  development components including economic, cultural, physical etc. On the other hand, utilizing  social capital along with other resources leads to the growth of any society, since it facilitates social action and reduces cost of interactions.  Trust, coherence, participation, awareness social are among the components of social capital that are prerequisites for any development. One of the main components contributing to the  explanation of social capital is security. Given  that women account for half of the population,  addressing women’s issues, including security as social and human capital, is one of the most urgent needs of our society today. It is necessary to measure women social capital and its role in explaining the level of security. According to the above mentioned facts, the aim of this study  is to measure social capital of women in five  regions of Zahedan and its role in explaining their security. We followed Giddens, Coleman and Pontham theories. Regarding the studied components, this study is an applied study based on its goal and a descriptive-analytical  one regarding its methodology. The statistical  population includes all women living in Zahedan  (A total of 288180 women based on 2016 statistical data). The sample size is estimated as 383  using Cochran formula. Data were collected by random sampling. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was calculated by Cronbach’s  alpha coefficient. The relationship between social capital variables and security was measured and analyzed using statistical and inferential  methods and Spss software. The results indicate  there is a significant relationship between social  capital and women’s security.