MEN WRITING WOMEN: “THE WOMAN QUESTION” AND MALE DISCOURSE OF IRANIAN MODERNITY"

In this dissertation I explore “The Woman Question” in the discourse of Iranian male authors. A pro-modernity group, they placed women’s issues at the heart of their discourse. This dissertation follows the trajectory of the representation of “The Woman Question” as it is reflected in the male discourse over the course of a century. It discusses the production of a literature that was anchored in the idea of reform and concerned itself with issues pertaining to women. These men challenged lifelong patriarchal notions such as veiling, polygamy, gender segregation, and arranged marriages, as well as traditional roles of women and gender relations. This study is defined under the rubrics of “The Woman Question” and “The New Woman,” which I have borrowed from the Victorian and Edwardian debates of similar issues as they provide clearer delineations. Drawing upon debates on sexuality, and gender, this dissertation illustrates the way these men championed women was both progressive and regressive. This study argues that the desire for women’s liberation was couched in male ideology of gender relations. It further illustrates that the advancement of “The Woman Question,” due to its continuous and yet gradual shifting concurrent with each author’s nuanced perception of women’s issues, went through discernible stages that I refer to as observation, causation, remedy, and confusion. The analytical framework for this project is anchored in the “why” and the “how” of the Iranian male authors’ writings on women in addition to “what” was written. This dissertation examines four narrative texts—two in prose and two in poetry—entitled: “Lankaran’s Vizier,” “The Black Shroud,” “‘Arefnameh,” and “Fetneh” written respectively by Akhundzadeh, ‘Eshqi, Iraj Mirza, and Dashti. Chapter one outlines the historical background, methodology, theoretical framework, and literature review. The following chapters examine, the advocacy for companionate marriage and romantic love, women and nationalistic cause, veiling and unveiling, and the emerging figure of the New Iranian Woman as morally depraved.

Do female and male employees in Iran experience similar work-family interference, job and life satisfaction?

This study aims at examining gender differences in the experience of work–family interference and perceived job–life satisfaction in a group of Iranian employees. The participants in the study consist of 387 Iranian male and female employees from a variety of organizations. The results of t tests and multiple regression analysis using EQS 6.1 support the hypothesis that Iranian male and female employees experience similar interference in their work–family domains although they spend different numbers of hours in the workplace. The findings also show that whereas work-to-family interference has significant and negative effects on job–life satisfaction among male employees, for female employees, working hours and family-to-work interference had even more significant and negative effects on their job–ife satisfaction. Implications are discussed and recommendations made regarding future research and interventions in this area.

Lions and roses: An interpretive history of Israeli-Iranian relations

This multi-disciplinary research project explores the religious and cultural foundations within the "master commemorative narratives" that frame Israeli and Iranian political discourse. In articulating their grievances against one another, Israeli and Iranian leaders express the tensions between religion, nationalism, and modernity in their own societies. The theoretical and methodological approach of this dissertation is constructivist-interpretivist. The concept of "master commemorative narratives" is adapted from Yael Zerubavel's study of ritualized remembrance in Israeli political culture, and applied to both Israeli and Iranian foreign policy. Israel’s master commemorative narrative draws heavily upon the language of the Hebrew Bible, situating foreign policy discourse within a paradigm of covenantal patrimony, exile, and return, despite the unrelenting hostility of eternal enemies and "the nations." Iran’s master commemorative narrative expresses Iranian suspicion of foreign encroachment and interference, and of the internal corruption that they engender, sacralizing resistance to the forces of evil in the figurative language and myths of pre-Islamic tradition and of Shi'a Islam. Using a constructivist-interpretive methodological approach, this research offers a unique interpretive analysis of the parallels between these narratives, where they intersect, and where they come into conflict. It highlights both the broad appeal and the diverse challenges to the components of these "master" narratives within Israeli and Iranian politics and society. The conclusion of this study explains the ways in which the recognition of religious and cultural conflicts through the optic of master commemorative narratives can complement the perspectives of other theoretical approaches and challenge the conventions of Security Studies. It also suggests some of the potential practical applications of this research in devising more effective international diplomacy.

Lions and Roses: An Interpretive History of Israeli-Iranian Relations

This multi-disciplinary research project explores the religious and cultural foundations within the “master commemorative narratives” that frame Israeli and Iranian political discourse. In articulating their grievances against one another, Israeli and Iranian leaders express the tensions between religion, nationalism, and modernity in their own societies. The theoretical and methodological approach of this dissertation is constructivist-interpretivist. The concept of “master commemorative narratives” is adapted from Yael Zerubavel’s study of ritualized remembrance in Israeli political culture, and applied to both Israeli and Iranian foreign policy. Israel’s master commemorative narrative draws heavily upon the language of the Hebrew Bible, situating foreign policy discourse within a paradigm of covenantal patrimony, exile, and return, despite the unrelenting hostility of eternal enemies and “the nations.” Iran’s master commemorative narrative expresses Iranian suspicion of foreign encroachment and interference, and of the internal corruption that they engender, sacralizing resistance to the forces of evil in the figurative language and myths of pre-Islamic tradition and of Shi‘a Islam. Using a constructivist-interpretive methodological approach, this research offers a unique interpretive analysis of the parallels between these narratives, where they intersect, and where they come into conflict. It highlights both the broad appeal and the diverse challenges to the components of these “master” narratives within Israeli and Iranian politics and society. The conclusion of this study explains the ways in which the recognition of religious and cultural conflicts through the optic of master commemorative narratives can complement the perspectives of other theoretical approaches and challenge the conventions of Security Studies. It also suggests some of the potential practical applications of this research in devising more effective international diplomacy.

Women's silence : in the space of words and images

My thesis is made up of words and images. This study investigates the way in which silence operates productively within and between the two modes of communication. I suggest that in the process of changing words into images or scripto-visual art-practice, the silence in women's lives can be articulated. I argue that women draw on the generative qualities of silence to create forms of speech that override the cultural constructions of gender which have placed them within the space of ‘mute’ silence. To gain an historical perspective of this practice by women, I consider the lives of medieval nuns within religious enclosure and their work with words and images in the illuminated manuscript. I make a comparative study of original illuminated manuscripts, focussing mainly on visual language and locating aspects of the work closest to my own art-practice: the visual treatment of the space and inter-textual components of the page or folio. This project does not include an examination of miniatures or historiated initials. Rather, its aim is to identify and compare the use of other aesthetic devices available to the medieval scribe/artist through which they might have interacted with the text. I suggest links between verbal and visual performances of language and the repetition, or copying of texts by medieval nuns, as a means of female embodiment of words and their spaces. From the outcomes of my studio investigations and my consideration of other contemporary feminist art practices, I demonstrate how women artists may ‘re-write’ the text and ‘speak’ their silence through visual language and the acts of writing, drawing and painting the words of others. Through my engagement with feminist critical theory, the work of medieval scholars, original illuminated manuscripts and my studio research, I propose that scripto-visual practice remains particularly significant for women despite the differences between the medieval period and our own. As a generative practice, it negotiates some of the societal constraints on women's speech and visibility, because its language is ‘silent and disembodied’ from the image of woman constructed by male discourse. It is a form of speech that acknowledges as it defies the social and cultural conditions that shaped its necessity, articulating an alternative voice of women in the space of words and images.

Etapas de cambio comportamental frente al consumo de drogas ilegales, tabaco y alcohol en escolares de 9 a 17 años de Bogotá – Colombia

Objetivo: El propósito del estudio fue describir estadísticamente las etapas de cambio comportamental frente al consumo de sustancias psicoactivas –SPA– (alcohol, tabaco y drogas ilegales) en escolares entre 9 y 17 años de Bogotá- Colombia, pertenecientes al estudio FUPRECOL. Método: Se trata de un estudio descriptivo y transversal en 6.965 niños y adolescentes entre 9 y 17 años, pertenecientes a 24 instituciones educativas oficiales de Bogotá - Colombia. La medición de los procesos de cambio propuestos por el Modelo Transteórico (MTT), aplicados al consumo de drogas, tabaco y alcohol se aplicaron de manera auto-diligenciada mediante un cuestionario estructurado. Resultados: De la muestra evaluada, el 58,4% fueron mujeres con un promedio de edad 12,74 ± 2.38 años. En la población en general, frente al consumo de drogas, el 6% de los escolares se encontraban en etapa de pre-contemplación, 44 % en contemplación; 30% en preparación/acción, 20% en mantenimiento. Con relación al consumo de alcohol, el 5% de los niños y adolescentes se encontraban en etapa de pre-contemplación, 36 % en contemplación; 12% en preparación/acción, 46% en mantenimiento. Frente al tabaco, el 4% de los niños y adolescentes se encontraban en etapa de pre-contemplación, 33 % en contemplación; 12% en preparación/acción, 51% en mantenimiento. Conclusiones: En los escolares evaluados, un importante porcentaje se ubica en la etapa de mantenimiento frente a la intención de consumo de tabaco y alcohol. Frente al consumo de drogas ilegales los niños y adolescentes están en la etapa de contemplación. Se requieren esfuerzos mayores para fomentar programas preventivos que enseñen sobre el riesgo del abuso/dependencia de este tipo de sustancias psicoactiva sobre la salud; dándole prioridad en las agendas y políticas públicas dentro del ámbito escolar.

A prostitute's progress : male prostitution in scientific discourse

This paper examines discourses of male prostitution through an analysis of scientific texts. A contrast is drawn between nineteenth-century understandings of male prostitution and twentieth-century accounts of male prostitution. In contrast to female prostitution, male prostitution was not regarded as a significant social problem throughout the nineteenth century, despite its close association with gender deviation and social disorder. Changing conceptions of sexuality, linked with the emergence of the ‘adolescent’, drew scientific attention to male prostitution during the 1940s and 1950s. Research suggested that male prostitution was a problem associated with the development of sexual identity. Through the application of scientific techniques, which tagged and differentiated male prostitute populations, a language developed about male prostitution that allowed for normative assessments and judgements to be made concerning particular classes of male prostitute. The paper highlights how a broad distinction emerged between public prostitutes, regarded as heterosexual/masculine, and private prostitutes, regarded as homosexual/effeminate. This distinction altered the way in which male prostitution was understood and governed, allowing for male prostitution to be constituted as a public health concern.

Changing the discourse of women’s work : challenges and future directions

Theoretical work on the career development of women has travelled a journey from critique to creation. Early work responded to and criticised a literature that focused on theorising male roles in a workplace that was conceptualised as providing vertical career paths primarily for middle class males. Theorists have criticised the limitations of this theorising on the basis of gender, ability and social class variables - to name just a few. More recently theorists are creating new constructions and frameworks to enable a more holistic understanding of career, applicable to both women and men. This book provides a history of theorising about women's careers, in addition to presenting a focus on current empirical and theoretical work which contributes to current understandings of women's working lives. It has both mapped the current discourse and suggests challenges for future work. This chapter will provide a synthesis of the key issues presented in the book and pose some challenges for future work.

Femininity, mental weakness and difference : male students account for anorexia nervosa in men

The purpose of this study was to examine how men account for the diagnosis in men of anorexia nervosa (AN), a condition commonly associated with women. Male students participated in focus group discussions of topics related to AN. Discussions were tape-recorded with participants' consent, transcribed, and then analyzed using discourse analysis. The participants spontaneously constructed AN as a female-specific condition. When asked to account for AN in men, they distanced AN from hegemonic masculinities in ways that sustained both dominant masculine identities and gender-specific constructions of AN. These findings show how issues of health and gender are interlinked in everyday understandings of AN. Future researchers might usefully consider how the construction of gender-specific illness implicates wider notions of both feminine and masculine gender identities.

Conceptualising Women's Working Lives : Moving the Boundaries of Discourse

"Theoretical work on the career development of women has travelled a journey from critique to creation. Early work responded to and criticised a literature that focused on theorising male roles in a workplace that was conceptualised as providing vertical career paths primarily for middle class males. More recently theorists are creating new constructions and frameworks to enable a more holistic understanding of career, applicable to both women and men. These constructions include broadening the discussion from women’s careers to women’s working lives. This is the fifth book in the Sense Publishers Career Development Series. It features the vibrant work of contributors from around the world writing in the field of women’s working lives. It emphasises the need to explore theoretical connections and understandings in order to facilitate a more holistic and inclusive understanding of women’s working lives. The writers in the current volume acknowledge the changing roles of women, in both public and private spheres. Women’s roles in paid work are changing both in their nature and type of engagement. In addition, with an ageing population, women’s roles in care work are increasingly being extended from child care to aged care. This book provides a history of theorising about women's careers, in addition to presenting a focus on current empirical and theoretical work which contributes to understandings of women's working lives. It’s contributions both map the current discourse and challenge future work to extend the boundaries of that discourse."--publisher website

Preventive orientation and caries management by Iranian dentists

Ehkäisypainotteisuus karieksen hoidossa: iranilaishammaslääkärien hoitovalinnat Karies aiheuttaa hampaiden kovan pinnan ja hammasluun syöpymistä, joka lopulta näkyy ”reikänä”. Iästä riippumatta kariesvaara vaanii kaikkia hampaiden omistajia, vauvasta vaariin, ja lähes kaikilla aikuisilla on suussaan merkkejä karieksesta. Karies etenee yleensä hitaasti ja antaa siten aikaa ehkäisevälle hoidolle. Tämä etsikkoaika jää usein käyttämättä, ja karieksen hoito painottuu reikien paikkaamiseen. Karies voitaisiin pitää kurissa sen ehkäisyyn kehitetyillä monipuolisilla keinoilla. Hammaslääkärit ovat avainasemassa, sillä he tekevät kauaskantoisia valintoja — hoidetaanko kariesta paikkaamalla vai valitaanko ehkäisevä hoito? Valintojen taustalla ovat hammaslääkärin tietotaso, asenteet ja omat terveystavat sekä potilaiden ja vastaanoton aiheuttamiksi koetut esteet. Tämä kyselytutkimus selvitti karieksen hoitovalintoja ja niiden taustoja Iranissa. Kysymyslomakkeet jaettiin kahdessa hammaslääkärien kongressissa Teheranissa (2004─2005) ja palautettiin nimettöminä. Kysely kartoitti hammaslääkärien tietoja karieksen ehkäisykeinoista ja asenteita ehkäisyä kohtaan sekä koettuja esteitä sen toteuttamisessa. Hoitovalintoja selvitettiin tarkasti kuvattujen esimerkkipotilaiden avulla. Kysely kartoitti myös hammaslääkärien omat terveystavat: suun omahoidon, tupakoinnin ja hammaslääkärissä käynnin. Aineisto käsitti 980 iältään keskimäärin 37-vuotiasta hammaslääkäriä, joista 64 % oli miehiä. Iranilaishammaslääkärien tiedot karieksen ehkäisystä olivat fluorihammastahnan merkitystä lukuun ottamatta hyvät ja heidän asenteensa ehkäisyä kohtaan valtaosin myönteiset. Tästä huolimatta 77 % heistä olisi valinnut suuren kariesvaaran potilaalle hammaskiilteessä olevan reiän hoidoksi paikkauksen. Ehkäisyhoidoksi tarjotuista 8:sta keinosta lähes kaikki hammaslääkärit valitsivat suuren kariesvaaran potilaalle hoidoksi harjausopetuksen ja säännölliset hammastarkastukset, noin 80 % valitsi hampaiden puhdistamisen vastaanotolla ja ravintoneuvonnan, 70 % ohjeet fluorihuuhteluista kotona ja 53 % vastaanotolla tehtävän fluorikäsittelyn. Potilaiden vastustavat mielipiteet arvioitiin suurimmaksi esteeksi ehkäisevän hoidon toteuttamiselle. Hammaslääkäreistä 59 % ilmoitti harjaavansa hampaansa kahdesti päivässä; 76 % ei tupakoinut ja 56 % kertoi aina ehdottavansa tupakoivalle potilaalle tupakoinnin lopettamista. Hammaslääkärien ehkäisypainotteisuus karieshoidossa oli naisilla vahvempi kuin miehillä. Tulosten perusteella voi päätellä, että Iranissa tulisi nykyistä selvemmin suosia ehkäisevää linjaa karieksen hoitovalintoja tehtäessä ja hammaslääkäreitä koulutettaessa. Potilastyössä koettujen ehkäisyhoidon esteiden syvällisempi ymmärtäminen edesauttaisi niiden poistamisessa.

A Phenomenologically Sensitized Analysis of Images Depicting Stressed Embodiment in an Adolescent Male with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Each person with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) comes with unique characteristics (idiosyncratic) that give clues to the world they know (Connolly, 2008). It is through their body that they (a) know the world they are experiencing, (b) make meaning, and (c) express certain behaviours. I used Laban’s Movement Analysis (LMA) to practice an attuned and appreciative approach to describing and understanding the body movement in one severe manifestation of autism in an adolescent male. LMA observes human movement across many disciplines and can be applied in many contexts providing a body honoring discourse for description (Connolly, 2008). The framework examines movement in body, space, quality, and relation. Each theme provides a detailed description of the individual’s movement, thus, giving us a richer understanding of patterns and possible triggers to self-injurious behaviours (SIB). During the summer of August 2013, I participated in Brock University’s annual Autism Camp and worked with a 15 year old male named “Aaron” who manifests with low functioning autism. The purpose of my research project was to code and analyze a series of photos taken to help gain insight into movement patterns associated with stressed embodiment and self-injury in “Aaron”. As I understood more about these embodied expressions, I uncovered valuable information on how to read patterns and discover what triggers these events, thus providing strategies on how to help people do more refined observations and make meaning of the behaviour. Laban’s movement analysis provided a sensitized discourse appropriate to the embodied expressions depicted in the photos.

Community, School and Sport: Experiences of Male Youth from Rexdale

This research study used an interview-based methodology to examine the schooling and sport experiences of racialized male youth from Toronto’s Rexdale community. Situated in the city’s northwest end, this marginal space is home to a highly racialized, economically disadvantaged and inordinately criminalized populace. Although the media continues to essentialize members of the community by propagating a prejudiced, homogenous, predictable, and largely taken-for-granted discourse that constructs the community as ‘other’, Rexdale exhibits vast diversity and offers its male youth a variety of opportunities and experiences. In discussions with participants it was revealed that the intersections of race, class and gender have substantial impacts on the ways in which Rexdale’s male youth experience their community, schools and sport. More specifically, Rexdale’s Black male youth regularly exhibit great resistance against oppression within their community and schools. As a result of these experiences their participation in sport can carry heightened significance.

Between the spheres : male characters and the performance of femininity in four victorian novels, 1849-1886

“Between the Spheres: Male Characters and the Performance of Femininity in Four Victorian Novels, 1849-1886” définit le célibataire domestique, analyse les effets de l’érosion des frontières entre les domaines public et privé et retrace l’évolution du discours public au sujet de la masculinité dans quatre œuvres: Shirley écrit par Charlotte Brontë, Lady Audley’s Secret de Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Daniel Deronda par George Eliot, et The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde de Robert Louis Stevenson. En identifiant le célibataire domestique comme personnage récurrent à la dernière moitié du dixneuvième siècle, cette dissertation démontre comment ce personnage arrive à représenter l’incertitude face aux questions de sexualité, non seulement dans des rôles féminins mais aussi dans les positions de l’homme dans la société et la remise en question du concept de la masculinité. Tout comme il y eu de femmes à l’affût de la liberté au-delà du domaine privé, des hommes aussi cherchèrent leur liberté au sein du domaine domestique par des performances féminines. Le célibataire domestique rapporte sur le concept New Woman de cette période par sa tendance de promouvoir de nouvelles définitions de la masculinité victorienne et les limites entre sexes. Le célibataire domestique passe du domaine public, plutôt masculin, vers le domaine privé, plutôt féminin en participitant dans le discours féminin, tel que les sujets de le domesticité, la chastité, la moralité, le mariage, et l’amour. En s’inspirant de l’analyse des domaines public et privé par Jürgen Habermas, cette dissertation revoit les rôles de ces domaines et leur élasticité dans les quatre œuvres en question ainsi que le sort des célibataires domestiques. L’assignation de sexe à ces domaines mena à la recherche de nouveaux formes de masculinité, produisant une définition de mâle liée au statut de la femme dans le domaine privé. Le célibataire domestique se déplace facilement entre ces domaines sans souffrir d’accusations de tendances effeminées ou d’aliénation sociale, à l’encontre des conséquences qu’ont souffert les personnages femelles pour leur comportement inhabituel. Chaque chapitre de cette dissertation considère les changements dans le discours de la sexualité afin de suivre la migration du célibataire domestique du domaine féminin au milieu du dixneuvième siècle jusqu’un nouveau domaine à la fin de siècle qui estompe la distinction rigide crue être en place tout au long de la période victorienne.

Queering Philip Roth: homosocial discourse in 'An actor’s life for me', 'Letting go', 'Sabbath’s theater' and the 'American trilogy'

Much has been written on Roth’s representation of masculinity, but this critical discourse has tended to be situated within a heteronormative frame of reference, perhaps because of Roth’s popular reputation as an aggressively heterosexual, libidinous, masculinist, in some versions sexist or even misogynist author. In this essay I argue that Roth’s representation of male sexuality is more complex, ambiguous, and ambivalent than has been generally recognized. Tracing a strong thread of what I call homosocial discourse running through Roth’s oeuvre, I suggest that the series of intimate relationships with other men that many of Roth’s protagonists form are conspicuously couched in this discourse and that a recognition of this ought to reconfigure our sense of the sexual politics of Roth’s career, demonstrating in particular that masculinity in his work is too fluid and dynamic to be accommodated by the conventional binaries of heterosexual and homosexual, feminized Jew and hyper-masculine Gentile, the “ordinary sexual man” and the transgressively desiring male subject.