Contemporary Iran Research Articles

The Saqqa-khaneh Calligraphy-Painting Movement in Iran

This article aims to describe the Saqqa-khaneh calligraphy-painting movement in Iran. This School was a significant movement in modern Iranian art that became influential in the formation of a modern approach toward prevailing traditional heritage. This artistic movement came about in the midst of the country’s modernisation, in an endeavour to link traditional Iranian culture with contemporary aspects of the visual arts, and with contemporary western paintings in particular. Abiding by Iranian tradition was not the primary engine driving Saqqa-khaneh art, nor was it to emulate western art. Contemporary Iranian artists have enriched Persian script endowing it with variety and aesthetic intention and have produced many masterpieces, particularly when calligraphy is combined with pictorial language. In the last six decades, this movement has gained a nation-wide significance in contemporary Iranian society and culture, leading to an increasing number of practitioners, collectors and a presence of calligraphy-painting-inspired advertising and design. Moreover, it has gradually found a position in the global art world. In the current art market, Persian contemporary calligraphy-painting stands out among Middle-Eastern productions.

“Are you gay or do you do gay?” Subjectivities in “gay” stories on the Persian sexblog shahvani.com

Abstract The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the influence of local-traditional perceptions of sexuality in the construction of subjectivity among men involved in same-sex sexual practices in contemporary Iran. In order to do so, I shall briefly outline some essential features of the local-traditional understanding of sexuality, which I consider to be epistemologically and ontologically different from the modern concept of human sexuality. Subsequently, the continuity of the local-traditional understanding of sexuality in the identity construction of those individuals involved in same-sex sexual practices will be demonstrated through an inquiry on contemporary pornographic stories written by users of an online platform with erotic and pornographic content. I will argue that the perception of and the explanation for same-sex desire as well as the categorisations of subjects found in these stories point to the predominance of local-traditional patterns of thought in the imagination of the authors of these stories. However, it will also be demonstrated that the modern idea of sexuality is present among some other users of this platform, whose modern worldview is in conflict and competition with the local-traditional views on sexuality. This conflict is best illustrated in the commentary sections of the stories on this website, where modern-thinking users question the “truth” of the epistemology behind these local-traditional narratives. This modern users’ criticism of the local-traditional view on same-sex desire shall be addressed in the last part of the paper.

The work of uncertainty

The work of uncertainty

The emergence of the child subject in the Qajar era: An introduction to materiality of the history of ideas in contemporary Iran

The emergence of the child subject in the Qajar era: An introduction to materiality of the history of ideas in contemporary Iran

A Critique on the Book “Nation, State and Rule of Law”

Javad Tabatabai’s intellectual project has been based on two main axes of the decline of political thought in Iran for the past three decades and in recent decades around the axis of Iranshahri thought. Tabatabai is one of the few writers who has used concepts to explain the history of political thought in Iran within a regular intellectual system, but the scope of his project has caused that not all the themes of Iranshahri political thought have been clearly outlined and studied. This article is an attempt to give a brief description of Tabatabai’s latest work and its important issues such as the position of the First Constitutional Assembly, the concept of tradition, the need to distinguish between nationalism and the Iranian idea, and a reflection on his views, especially on the relationship between his views and issues, contemporary Iran and its criticisms of contemporary intellectuals. The authors argue that although the legacy of ancient Iran is important and significant, without the reconstruction of the classical ideas that are called Iranshahri thought due to Tabatabai's own efforts nowadays, these ideas will remain in a state of ambiguity.

Divine vs. Human Law: The Quarrel between the Anti- and Pro-Constitutionalist Jurists in Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906

This study investigated the quarrel between the pro-and anti-constitutionalist jurists following the establishment of the first National Consultative Assembly (Majlis) in Iran and the drafting of the first constitution in 1906. A group of shi῾ite jurists launched an attack on Majlis, in addition to the ideas of human legislation, freedom, and equality, by considering the Islamic Sharī῾a law to be a set of perfect and impeccable laws. In response to these oppositions, the pro-constitutional jurists argued in favor of the constitutional movement. In this paper, it is argued that the quarrel could be considered as evidence for the perennial tension between the divine and human law in Islam. It appears that examining this conflict may shed light on incidents shaping the history of contemporary Iran.

Bühler’s organon model of communication: a semiotic analysis of advertising slogans

Abstract This article investigates the member units of sign systems used in contemporary Iranian advertising slogans according to the Organon Model introduced by Karl Bühler. In dealing with this subject, the writer introduces Bühler’s Organon Model and provides a short definition of the term advertising slogan. The next part of this article shows the three types of conative functions with regard to such slogans. The corpus of this study is the slogan of a hundred contemporary Iranian advertising messages used in Iranian markets which have not been studied from a semiotic perspective. The result of this research shows the tendencies of Iranian advertising messages to lean towards the descriptive type of conative function.

From Soil to Domes: Vernacular Architecture and Construction Techniques in Esfahak, South Khurasan

ABSTRACT This article examines construction techniques of earthen vernacular architecture, with a particular focus on traditional construction processes of mud brick vaults and domes in contemporary Iran. The village of Esfahak, in South Khurasan, is selected as a case study due to its unique historical circumstances, traditional buildings and construction methods, and recent restoration activities carried out by villagers. The village was damaged by an earthquake in 1978 and abandoned for 30 years until a group of Esfahakis decided to restore their ruined earthen houses. This marked the start of an intergenerational exchange that allowed young villagers to train alongside old masters in a process of rediscovery of long-time abandoned construction techniques. The old village has been reconnected to the lives of current residents, while the reconstructed buildings continue to bear witness to the millennial knowledge and skills of erecting vaults and domes from the plateau’s arid soil. This article is based on fieldwork research on building sites and interviews with craftsmen in Esfahak, combined with a review of existing literature on traditional and historical construction techniques in the Persian world.

Passivity of Women Subject's Transformation in Contemporary Iranian History

هدف: هدف پژوهش حاضر این است تا نشان دهد زنان با گذشت زمان به عنوان حاملان حرکت­های اومانیسیتی، به جای عدم کنش پذیری در مقابل ساختار مذکر به سوژه­های سر به راهی در ساختار مذکر تبدیل شده­ اند و به جای تاکید بر ساختار غیر جنسیتی و نقد نابرابری های ساختار اجتماعی، سیاسی و اقتصادی مذکر، خود به عنوان جزیی از ساختار، حضور در ساختار را به عنوان یک وظیفه اجتماعی برای خود در نظر گرفته اند. روش: روش تحقیق تحلیلی و توصیفی است و چارچوب نظری تحقیق مارکسیسم ساختارگرا است. یافته ها: یافته های پژوهش نشان می دهد که جنبش های دفاع از حقوق زنان گرچه در اعتراض به برخی نابرابری ها در صورتبندی های اجتماعی، سیاسی و اقتصادی شکل گرفته است، اما اعتراضات زنان هم موجبات گسترش مشارکت زنان در زندگی سیاسی و فرهنگی را هموار نکرده است و هم این اعتراضات، زنان را به سوژه های متوهم و سربه راهی تبدیل کرده است.

A short history of liberalism in contemporary Iran

A short history of liberalism in contemporary Iran

The ‘sun’ shinning upon the ‘ever-lasting’ country: a diachronic analysis of Iranian national anthems during the 20th century

Abstract Iran has undergone a metamorphosis in its ideological and national identity due to its historical upheavals in the past century, e.g. the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1906–11), Islamic Revolution (1979), Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988). This paper aims to present the diachronic changes in the Iranian official national anthems’ lyrics. Through a critical discourse lens, I demonstrate how the socio-political changes have influenced these anthems and how such transformations have shaped the ideological identities of Iranians’ pre- and post-Islamic revolution to outsiders via lyrics. More specifically, I show how these identities are constructed through texts and via intertextual means. The findings display that the changes in Iranian anthems not only index a socio-historical transformation, but also a kind of acceleration in terms of political developments in contemporary Iran, and the ways in which the leaders may have employed their own ideological views to project Iranian identities.

Considering Transgender in Iran

Review: Saeidzadeh, Zara. 2020. Trans and Sex Change in Contemporary Iran: A Socio-Legal Study of Gendered Policies and Practices. PhD diss. Örebro University: Centre for Feminist Social Studies. (159 pages)

Explaining the Methodological Components in Seyed Jafar Shahidi Religious Historiography

Historiography in contemporary Iran, faced significant advances affected by methodolgy developments of recent centuries in the West. However, the circle of these changes influence in the Islamic history and the religions developments did not expand so much. Nevertheless, a limited number of historians in academic assemblies tried to make religious historiography, scientific and methodical in their work such as Seyed Jafar Shahidi.The present study aims to explain the methodological components of Shahidi’s historiography to answer the question of whether his religious historiography can be considered methodical and based on scientific principles. Influenced by his theological and religious origins, Shahidi had concerns such as the scientific study of the history of Islam and the life history of the Shiite Imams (as) and trying to explain historically and methodically some ideological ideas. Based on these principles, influenced by his methodological knowledge and modern requirements, Shahidi’s historiography has basic components such as the scientific and critical editing of narratives, the use of other sciences in historical analysis, and critique of the views of contemporary Muslim and Orientalist authors. Since Shahidi tried to use these components methodically and with expressive literature based on interrogative dialogue with historical subjects, his works can be considered as a kind of religious historiography based on scientific principles, although in some subjects they do not go beyond traditional descriptions or influenced by religious interpretations. Hence, he can be considered a neo-traditionalist historiographer.

Secular Writers’ Engagement with Religious Tradition in 20th Century Iran: From Undermining to Deconstructing; A Generational Paradigm Shift

The present article is an attempt to conceptually discuss the development of modern secular approaches to religious tradition in contemporary Iran through the lenses of literary works. Throughout the paper, secularism has been understood as in the notion of “changes in the conditions of belief”, proposed by Charles Taylor. With José Casanova’s reading of Taylor’s conception, secularism becomes equivalent to a gradual construction of new and contextually specific images of the self and society, different from European narrative of religious decline. Accordingly, this article revisits the category of the Iranian ‘secular’ writer by looking into the trajectory of the Iranian literature field and its shifting relation to religion, itself influenced by the change in how secularism is understood within the field, during the 20th century. The paper argues that the 1979 revolution and its aftermath led to a paradigm shift in the writers’ conception of secular engagement with the religious tradition when compared with the first and second generation of writers. The first generation of Iranian secular writers mostly undermined the religious tradition as outdated rituals, and the second generation made a return to it as an authentic part of the Iranian identity under the local and global socio-political influences. The third generation went beyond such rejection/embrace narratives, came to see the religious tradition as a constructed cultural legacy, and engaged in re-reading and deconstructing that legacy in new secular ways.

Parting the Curtain: The Virgin Heroine and the ‘Westoxified’ Villain in Contemporary Iranian Romance Novels

Parting the Curtain: The Virgin Heroine and the ‘Westoxified’ Villain in Contemporary Iranian Romance Novels

“Men’s Power can be Overridden by Women’s Sexual Power”: Married Women’s Talk About Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Iran

“Men’s Power can be Overridden by Women’s Sexual Power”: Married Women’s Talk About Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Iran

Freedom of Religion: The Contribution of Contemporary Iranian Reformist Scholars

This article examines a specific line of thinking shared by several contemporary reformist Iranian religious scholars who present arguments in favor of freedom of religion. Focusing on the ideas of five prominent reformist Iranian scholars—Abdolkarim Soroush (b.1945), Muhammad Mujtahed Shabestari (b.1936), Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari (b.1950), Mohsen Kadivar (b.1959), and Ahmad Qabel (d.2012)—the article argues that these thinkers’ defense of freedom of religion is based not only on their interpretations of the Qurʾān and historical Islamic sources, but also philosophical arguments in which concepts from the fields of epistemology and hermeneutics are deployed. As the article demonstrates, some of these scholars connect the notion of freedom of religion to political arguments supporting religious tolerance, or the view that, in order to guarantee religious freedom, the state must be neutral towards the religious orientation of its citizens.

The Challenge of Religious Governance in the Modern Nation-State

Abstract This article explores the tensions of Islamic governance in contemporary Iran by examining the convergence of Islamic law with modern practices of governance. One key contention with contemporary statehood this political project is trying to reconcile is how to re-embed religious norms in the secularized political sphere. I assert that the political and legal practices for re-embedding these norms indicate an epistemic shift in the modes of legitimation within Muslim political and legal tradition possibly leading to the formation of a new Islamic political orthodoxy. This exploration is based on information from ethnographic interviews conducted with the former President of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1989–1997), the late Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and former Minister of Radio and Television (1981–1994) and the current member of the Expediency Council, Muhammad Rafsanjani. The article bases its argument by analyzing two variant forms of political practice. First, scrutinizing the fatwas of Ayatollah Khomeini that played a crucial role in influencing policy in the first decade of the Islamic Republic. Second, examining the adjudications of a conciliar governmental body (Majma-e Tashkhis-e Maslahat) formed a decade after the revolution to resolve the tensions associated with the implementation of Islamic law in this modern nation-state.

Analyzing the relationship between barriers to women's political participation and relevant laws In the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Women's political rights and how they participate in the public sphere in contemporary Iran are always challenging, given the frameworks derived from the religion, tradition, culture and custom that govern society. From this perspective, the explanation of the main question of this article is due to the lack and capacity of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the presence of women in politics. The structure of the research is based on telling the history of women's participation and presence in the public arena from the constitutional era until now, the position of women's political rights in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, women's performance and presence in the public forces of Iran (by the country's basic institutions). Has been. Also in the field of theoretical framework, in addition to the subject laws, some views opposing women's participation in public affairs have been raised and criticized. In this process, the research method is descriptive-analytical; The purpose of this article, in addition to recognizing the capacities of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is to examine the challenges and shortcomings in the theoretical and practical field. Also, in this regard, relying on the high power of the epistemological frameworks of Islamic laws and considering the conditions of the present era, practical and appropriate contexts and solutions to address this issue in the field of politics and legislation are examined.

The Intellectual Tradition of Libertarian Islam and Its Relation to the Thought of the Islamic State in Iran

Liberal thought in Iran was based on contemporary political and social conditions that influenced Iranian thought. Also, this idea has benefited from some of the features of Iranian and Islamic political culture; therefore, it has been shown in a new form, called the tradition of freedom of Islam. One of the most important manifestations of this tradition can be seen in the formation of political thought after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. The main question of this research, after explaining the idea of libertarian Islam in the form of an intellectual tradition, is how this idea has been effective in shaping the constitution and the nature of the political system in contemporary Iran. The results of this study show that the main issue of liberal thought in Iran was freedom of the public and restrictions on the duties of the government. In this regard, the original "non" has been absolutism. Thus, at the same time as the formation of the constitution after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, in spite of the inability to achieve complete power and the hegemony in the field of thought, it tried to prevent the widespread extension of the functions of the political system by ormulating restrictive laws of political power.