диссертация (1169135), страница 48
Текст из файла (страница 48)
The resource ofglobalized media provides more knowledge to the agents empowering them to actreflexively transforming the current social system. Therefore, Iranian state, today,confronts the pervasion of Western cultural products that generally depict Iranianculture void of gender equality suppressing depriving women from liberty. Thesoft power against Iran is regarded as a “soft war” that absorbing Iran womendiverts them from the norms promoted by the Islamic republic.
Women's violatedreiteration of actions threatens the stability of traditions, yet guarantees them amodern identity.205CONCLUSIONThis study is an attempt to signal how Judith Butler's performative theoryprovides a novel perspective in the context of Iranian women's identity. Based onthis theory identity is the product of discourse, while the agency of subject is notdenied. The reiteration of norms of femininity via women as the subjectsguarantees the stability of the discourse that has produced the norms. At the sametime that the reiteration of the norms gives the subject a viable identity in thediscourse, it gives her agency to transform her identity and subvert the norms.
Inthe course of reiteration, the bound of signifier (woman) and signified (femininity)is destabilized through the performances that deviate from the significationsintended originally by the discourse. These deviated performances construct newsignifications. To demonstrate the dualistic interaction of structure and agent, thestructuration theory of Giddens has also been applied as a supportive theory.Three aspects of contemporary Iranian women's life are studied to illuminatethe way that discourse constructs their identities and the way that theirperformances generate new meanings.
The research claims that, in Iran thecentrality of Islamic culture has prevented the escape of signified meanings in thereiteration beyond the realm of heteronormativity. Though significations of femalesex has been subject to change, it circulates within the heteronormativity.Research Findings and Contribution to KnowledgeThe research innovatively explores the correspondence of Butler'sperformativity and Giddens' structuration theory. The two theories overlap in theiremphasize on the dualistic interaction of discourse and the agent as well as on theway that subjects gain agency through their actions and performances.206Since Islam, as the major religion of the country, has played a significant rolein country, different approaches of Islam toward women are examined.
It is foundthat generally four approaches have been materializing female sex in Iraniansociety. Fundamentalist traditional jurisprudents reject women’s independentidentity and appeal to their jurisprudential evidence to prohibit women from anycultural and social activity. But moderate jurisprudents and Islamic scholarsencourage women to engage in cultural and social activities in contemporary Iran,taking women’s identity to be different from men’s because of the system ofcreation—they believe that there is a fair balance in favor of both genders in thereligion.
Reformist jurisprudents respect women’s identity and give priority totheir cultural and social activities, and thus, they seek a renewed reading ofreligious sources in order to empower women’s identity and make the religionresponsive to their social and cultural needs. However, secular Muslim modernistsmaintain that the rules of the traditional ijtihad cannot help solve the dispute overthe problem of women. Therefore, women’s identity and their intellectual, culturaland social activities can be reinforced by solving the conflict between the traditionand modernity, taking jurisprudential disagreements to be temporary and relativeto certain historical periods, and employing the human rationality and experience.Fundamentalists dominated pre-constitutional Iranian society.
Although theencounter with modernity during constitutionalism shattered its roots, it sustainedits stability. Women's social presence in Islamic revolution revealed their latentpotentials. Although they wereconstructed by discourses, as agents womeninfluenced changes in religious structures of society. The dualistic interaction ofwomen and the structure contributed to creation of a new approach as moderatetraditionalists that valued religious women's social participation became thedominant discourse.The post-revolutionary structure provided women withresources of knowledge and academic education. Knowledgeable women soughtidentification with modern culture.
At the same time, the presidency of Khatami,valued the social involvement of women with modernized ideas, appearance,207contributing to domination of reformist approach. The expansion of globalizationand media exposed women to Western modernized culture. Some secular Muslimmodernists answering the demands of women for modern identity elaboratedmodernist approach. This approach that gives meaning to female sex not based onreligion and Islam, deconstructs heteronormative gender stereotypes. Sinceinterpretations of modernist approach is out of the context of Islamic instructions,the meanings they attribute to female sex is not confined to heteronormativity.However, all three approaches that enjoy the centrality of Islam agree onheteronormativity, though they offer various meanings of female sex.TraditionallyIranianfemalesexwasmaterializedwithoppressiveheteronormative meanings.
Secluded from the society, female body was devoted tomaternity and nurturing. As the property of the husband, female sex was expectedto be attractive. In addition to the physical standards of beauty that seem abnormalin contrast to current values, the significance of female fertility as well as purityand piety was remarkable. Her seclusion was also represented in her veiling thatenveloped her totally and was regarded as hampering her social involvements. Thefinancial work of indigent women inside the houses failed to promise them anindependent social identity.
Their leisure activities were also bound to traditionalheteronormative expectations steeped with religion. Both their indoor and outdoorleisure were only for women. These meanings attributed fixed identities totraditional meaning who deprived from the resources such as knowledge andeducation failed reflexive consideration of their performances. These performancesguaranteed the stability of traditional religious discourse.During the constitutional revolution, women mainly under the influence ofreligious authorities entered the society to oppose the state. The religion that hadinspired them, however, demanded that women return to their houses. Unlike themajority of traditional women, those under Western discourse resisted and claimedfor education, knowledge and social involvement.208The elite women breaking the walls of seclusion defined new signification forfemale sex as socially active and economically productive.
The visibility of bodyconcerned them with body image. Women practiced Western fashion and cultureof beauty to be identified as modern. The modern culture of beauty invoked theimported health and beauty products that provided women an emancipatory roadfor social expression.
However, the signification of female body as mothers andcaregivers was more reinforced.Traditionally female body signified seclusion, maternity and caregiving, aswell as being attractive for the husband. Elite women under the westernizeddiscourse subverted the norm of seclusion, yet the signification of maternity andnurturing was highlighted. They also transformed the ideal of authority of husbandover the physical beauty of wife; however, the range of expectations of femalephysical beauty expanded to whole society.Elite women as the effects of Westernized modern discourse releasedthemselves from the traditional veil, even before the mandatory unveiling.
Beingexposed to Western discourse, elite women regarded veiling as a hamper impedingtheir way toward civilization. Veiling that signified backwardness among elitesand the state, was a norm identifying religious and traditional women. Unveilingdecree, politicizing the veil produced a transparent gap between traditional andmodern identity. Female body was the cite for the competition of powers.The subversion of norm of veiling, though escapes from traditionalheteronormativity, it fails to blur the visible gender identity between men andwomen.
Since women were expected to appear in hats and dresses designed forwomen, there was no place for an identity beyond heteronormativity. This newdressing code defined a new female identity.In the realm of work and leisure, only elite women entered social professionsand mixed leisure spaces. Though in the initial phases the professions allocated tothem were womanly jobs, gradually they broke the borders and entered all sorts ofprofessions. These performances constructed a female identity released from209traditional heteronormative gender stereotypes and reproduced an independentactive female identity.Social participation was a new signification that subverting traditional norm ofseclusion of women, defined female sex beyond the traditional heteronormativenorms.
However, the signification of female body as a mother, nurturer and anattractive sex still carried the traditional heteronormativity, though in transformedmodes. Elite women's performances under the influence of Western discourseproduced a new definition of female sex that was emancipated from traditionalnorms. The traditional norms of seclusion, veiling, and being attractive for thehusband were subverted. However, these new definitions, being produced byphallogocentric culture failed to unshackle women from the heteronormativesignifications of femininity.
Being involved in social arenas, the unveiled femalebody was more concerned with her body image, and attempted to look morefeminine in her dressing style and makeup. Modern signification of female sexmaintained heteronormative definition of femininity both at work and leisurespaces as well as at home.
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