Becoming Visible in Iran Women in Contemporary Iranian Society

by Honarbin-Holliday, Mehri

• ISBN13: 9781845118785
• ISBN10: 1845118782
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-15
• Publisher: Tauris Academic Studies

Summary

The state of women in Islamic societies is the subject of much interest and heated debate, even as representations in the media rely on inadequate information and misperceptions. Becoming Visible in Iran disputes the widespread stereotypes about Muslim women prevalent in the West, providing a vivid account of young women in contemporary Iran. Beginning at home, women are infusing dramatic change by challenging the patriarchal conceptions of their fathers, brothers, uncles and others within the intimate sphere of family and home. Empowered by education, they transport the power of their minds and being from the domestic to the public and political. Through detailed interviews and striking narratives, Mehri Honarbin-Holliday presents the experiences of these young women who wield a key if indirect political influence on the seemingly male dominated politics of this society, as they achieve a new visibility. For its direct presentation of women's perspectives as well as its analysis and insight, this book is a vital contribution to our understanding of the lives of Muslim women and the possibilities before them today.

Author Biography

Mehri Honarbin-Holliday is Research Fellow in international education at Canterbury Christ Church University and affiliated to the London Middle East Institute.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Ideological Certainties, Past And Present

Totality, Utopia, and Foundationalism

From Fairytales to Nightmares

The Topic of this Book

The Islamic Roots Of Modernity And The Modern Roots Of Islamism

British Colonialism in India and the Islamic Modernism of Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897)

Al-Ikhw?n al-Muslimun: The Birth of Political Islam

Abul Ala Maududi (1903-1979): The Islamic State in Pakistan

Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966): The Establishment of the State of Israel

The Arab-Israeli War of 1967 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979

Legitimizing The Postrevolutionary Regime And The Genesis Of The New Constitution

The Genesis of the Constitution and Its Ratification

The Politics of the Assembly of Experts & the Final Draft of the Constitution

Vel?yat-e Faqih and the Right of Self-Determination

Sources of Legitimacy: The Faqih Meets Rousseau and Mao

National Interests and the Interests of the Ummah

Legislating and Ijtihad, the Constitution versus the Shari'ah

The Limits and boundaries of freedom and democracy

The Constitutional Referendum

From Sacralizing the State to Secularizing the Fiqh

Abdolkarim Soroush, The Intellectual Voice Of The Islamic Republic

Soroush, Marxists, and the "Eclectics"

Anthropomorphism, Scientism and Historicism

Elitist Totalitarianism

Soroush and the Cultural Revolution

Soroush and the Cultural Revolution Council (CRC)I

Soroush, the Purged President, and the Obliterated Left

From The Reign Of Terror To Let A Thousand Flowers Bloom

Factions Within

Things Fall Apart

Maslahat over Feq?hat

Amending the Constitution: The Institutionalization of the Absolute Rule of the Faqih

From Liberation Theology To State Ideology Ali Shari'Ati And The Emergence Of New Religious Intellectuals

Islam as Ideology

Shari'ati the Iranian Gramsci

Ummah, Imamate, and the Ideological Society

The West and Gharbzadegi

The Silence Of The Shari'Ah: Soroush And The Theological Foundations Of Political Reform

Soroush and the Critique of Islam as State Ideology

The Return from Ideology to Religion

The Theory of Shari'at-e S?met, The Silent Shari'ah

History, Culture, and Religious Knowledge

Secularism, Democracy, and the Religious State

Conceptions of Science and Technology

On Westoxication (Gharbzadegi)

The Return to "Authentic Self"

Responses: From Prodigy to Pariah

Islam, Democracy And Religious Pluralism

Straight Paths and Religious Pluralism

Reason and Religion

The Eternity of the Qur'an

The Critics: Relativism, Secularism, and Democracy

Soroush Versus Soroush

Whither Soroush?

Conclusion: Social Change And The Symbolic Universe Of Religion

Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.