Iran and Political Modernisation in the Nineteenth Century: Parliamentarianism, Constitutionalism and Feminism in the Newspaper "Ṣūr-i Isrāfīl"

Abstract

The Constitutional Revolution in Iran (1906–11) was of momentous significance for the evolution of various social and political concepts that were mainly rooted in Western ideologies. During the period of this revolution the face of Iran was changed. The flourishing of free and autonomous newspapers was one of the main features of the period. The contribution of these newspapers to the social and political development of Iran and the modernisation of the realm was more obvious than that of other factors that were changing the traditional society of the country at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ṣūr-i Isrāfīl, the most influential and independent newspaper of the time, played an essential part in the process of modernisation. This article attempts to examine the role of the newspaper by analysing relevant texts published in it during the period and identifying the elements they mediated that were important to the process of change.