نشریه بانوان شیعه
پیاپی 23 (بهار 1389)

The status of the Arab women before Islam has always been considered as the lowest one; since, men considered them void of perfect intellect and deprived them from numerous rights (including the rights of ownership, inheritance, domination of dowry and other properties).Furthermore, being deprived from acquisition of knowledge and skills of the time and not being properly dressed in the society are believed to be among the other conditions for women. However, through a more profound study about the above mentioned issues and consulting various historical and tradition sources and a multi-facet analysis of the narrations and quotations from the scholars, it can be implied that the women's right of ownership, domination of properties, enjoying appropriate clothing, making efforts to acquire knowledge, and enjoying equal rights as with men had probably been somehow approved. Although, one can not deny proportional prevalence of issues such as not wearing hijab, bedizenment by some women, the belief in women's having deficient intellect, and considering them seditious and wicked.

Her majesty Fatima (p. b. u. h.), who is a model for training all the people of the world, has been studied in general and specific terms by numerous scholars including Shiites, Sunnites, Christians, orientalists and Islamists. Henry Corbin is one of the well-known philosophers of the West who has studied about her majesty Zahra (p. b. u. h.). In his research, he developed a profound understanding about her majesty Zahra (p. b. u. h.) and considered her knowledge of God as the peak of divine knowledge. The present article is an attempt to study different aspects of Henry Corbin's thoughts about her majesty Zahra (p. b. u. h.).

The roles played by women in every society are an indication of the vivacity and vitality of the society. Iranian women have taken part in various fields through different historical periods in the public movement of the society of Iran. These communal actions throughout the history have taken place by different proportions. In the period of Qajar, because of the development of the relationships between the Iranians and different European countries, and also exploitation and colonization of Iran by Britain and Russia some changes happened to the identity of the Iranian women. In this situation, different groups (from religious to the westernized liberalist ones) performed communal actions. The present study, believing in the presupposition that the women in this period for the first time took organized communal actions and tried to penetrate in the public social layers of the society, studies the followings: the social background and the daily life of the Iranian women, the communal actions by Iranian women in regard with publishing newspapers, magazines, letters and notes, forming female clubs and organizations, establishing schools for girls, using houses as schools, creating critical arts and literature, demonstrations and rallies to protest, and struggling to achieve the right for voting. Furthermore, the article deals with the discourse between the women and the period of Constitutionalism.

The nuclear form of family is almost the general form of family around the world. Parsons, as one of the most influential figures in sociology, in the discussion about the family describes the nuclear family, and of course recommends it. In his view, the nuclear family consists of the wife, husband and their children which is managed according to their roles based on their genders and does not have an economic function. In this article, according to Parson's articles and their creditable reviews, his views about the family, which is directly affected by his major thoughts in sociology (specially his theory about the action system) are studied. Furthermore, the relationship between his scientific background and his sociological theories and viewpoints about the family is clarified. At the end, there will be a brief review on the considerations and criticisms on his viewpoints in this field and also some views different from his views are presented.

The holy Quran has talked about righteous women in 63 verses. These verses are about nine women, all of whom (except one, i.e. Pharaoh's wife) were from the household of the prophets; that is, their grandmothers, mothers, sisters, or daughters. From among these nine women, five of them have been mentioned as relevant with the events during the life of Moses including his majesty's mother and sister, Pharaoh's wife, Mose's wife and sister in law (Shueyb's daughters) respectively. The other four mentioned women are the Prophet Abraham's wife (Isaac's mother), Zachariah's wife (John's mother), Imran's wife (Maryam's mother and Jesu's grandmother, and her majesty Maryam (Jesu's mother). From among these people, just Maryam has been mentioned by name and the others have been mentioned through their kinship with men without any reference to their names. The study of the verses relevant to Salih's wives, which make up about one third of all the verses about women in the holy Quran, reveals their roles in giving birth to, growing and training the prophets. The present paper intends to study theses roles and their qualities. Therefore, it deals with the verses about these women. The approach taken by this research is interpretational and linguistic analysis.

Among the issues which affect the family institution and the positive interaction between the married couples, there is the issue of ill-treatment, which has been dealt with by the holy Quran in Chapter of An-Nisaa: 34, because of its importance and role in strengthening the family institution. Moreover, the holy Quran has provided some strategies against it.There are some criticisms mentioned about the strategies offered by the holy Quran against ill-treatment, one of which refers to incompatibility of some of these strategies with the human dignity of women. The present paper, based on verse 34 of chapter of An-Nisaa tries to answer this criticism and it concludes that the offered strategies in the mentioned Quranic verse are not incompatible with the human dignity of women; rather they reveal the holy Quran's special attempt to bring to the couples attention their duties and the role of their constructive interaction in strengthening the valuable institution of the family and also the psychological wellbeing of the society.

One of the current issues today is the issue of adornment and beautification. Beautifulness is defined as the excellence of delightful quality. Whatever is valuable and adds to the value of the man is ornament. Seeking for the beautifulness is divinely inbuilt in human being. The Greek philosophers have viewed the world in its culmination of beauty and have called it "cosmos". The creator of the world has built in the human the instinct of seeking the beautifulness and He has let the clothes ornament the human's body. The existence of the beautifulness is attractive and revives man's spirit of serving God, and having faith in Him ornaments the believers and the God's servants consider beautifulness as getting nigh to God. In Islam, people have been recommended to have good conducts; and having beautiful appearance has been considered as appreciation of God and His command.Wise people achieve the peak of beautifulness through appropriate adornment and getting present in religious ceremonies and visiting the believers. They believe that the aim of wearing ornaments is reflecting the divine blessing and getting nigh to God. Despite their instinctive desire for the others and exposing themselves, wise women avoid bedizenment and ruining themselves and their societies. Their affection, words and behavior embodies their wisdom. Satan disguises ugliness as beautifulness through soaring human's internal feelings. He tempts the people to rebel and leads them to the hell; but appreciating the household of the prophet of Islam can drive him away. The bounty of beautifulness is destroyed as a result of telling lies, boasting, and excessive self-exposing.