ISLAM AND SOCIAL STUDIES
Year:2025 | Volume:13 | Issue:2 (پیاپی 49)|Papers Count:7

Human life within each of the two systems—innate and imaginary—shapes distinct perspectives, tendencies, and behaviors. One rational approach to explaining the phenomenon of hijab and non-hijab is to consider the consequences of human existence within these two worlds. The concepts of the “innate world” and the “imaginary world” are key notions highlighted by Allameh Tabatabaei, through which many social issues can be analyzed. This article, using a documentary and analytical method, explores the social effects of hijab and non-hijab based on these two concepts, within sixteen categories. Some of these include: continuity or rupture with other aspects of human life, symbolic representation, identity formation, internal harmony or contradiction, support or confrontation, relation to human and gender perspectives, control and liberation, attractiveness or aversion in marriage, family stability or fragility, security or threat, authenticity or fluidity, dignity or passivity, efficiency, political dimension, and the rise or decline of Islamic resistance.

Religious propagation, as the central mission of divine prophets and a fundamental identity element of the Islamic Seminary (Hawza), has always played a vital role in preserving and spreading Islamic teachings. In religious texts, propagation is emphasized as a divine duty and a strategic approach to guide humanity, holding a special place within the academic and social structure of seminaries throughout history. However, in contemporary times, propagation has seemingly lost its priority. This shift in perspective—especially within the domains of education, research, and spiritual refinement—has led to a decline in attention toward propagation, consequently reducing its influence on the social and cultural transformations of the Islamic community. This study, employing thematic analysis and Causal Layered Analysis (CLA), explores the dimensions and causes of this phenomenon across four levels: litany, systemic, discursive, and metaphorical. The findings indicate that, at the litany level, signs such as the primacy of jurisprudence (fiqh) in the educational system, the marginalization of propagation training, and its detachment from contemporary realities are evident. At the social/structural level, factors such as the Seminary’s prevailing value system, spatial changes in schools, and weak institutional support contribute to this trend. At the discursive level, simplified perceptions of propagation and an imbalanced understanding of its people-centered nature are significant causes. Finally, at the metaphorical and symbolic level, metaphors such as “the pulpit preacher” and “the last refuge of the unsuccessful” reflect the underlying cultural imagery. These findings suggest that restoring the position of religious propagation within Seminary programs can profoundly impact the reconstruction of the Islamic community’s religious identity, counter national and global challenges, and foster collective movements toward upholding divine principles and spreading Islamic discourse across contemporary societies.

Various dimensions can be identified for different branches of science. Paying attention to these dimensions and their implications can clarify the distinction between Islamic social sciences and Western social sciences. Reflecting on the different dimensions of science is essential for researchers who seek to establish an alternative form of science. In fact, delving into the essence, scope, and various aspects of science is a prerequisite for any kind of inquiry along this path. The main question is whether Islamic and Western social sciences differ across all these dimensions, or whether such distinctions pertain only to specific ones. If so, which dimensions are they? Through reflection and inductive reasoning, at least twelve dimensions can be identified in scientific disciplines: description, discovery, understanding, explanation, justification (or the method of justification), theory, hypothesis acceptance, prediction, concepts, application, recommendation, and the object of study. This paper first briefly outlines the differences among these dimensions, then focuses on the dimension of description. Using an analytical-logical method, it seeks to answer whether descriptions in Islamic social sciences differ from those in Western social sciences. The study demonstrates that the distinction between Islamic and Western social sciences, in the specific sense of the descriptive dimension, exists and can be explained through three stages.

Given the rapid development of cyberspace and the necessity of addressing its governance issues, this study aims to explain the jurisprudential requirements of cyber governance, focusing on four main pillars of communication: the sender, the receiver, the message, and the medium. The research adopts an ijtihadi (jurisprudential reasoning) method, relying on the Qur’an, Hadiths, and the opinions of Shi’a jurists to analyze the subject. The findings indicate that jurisprudential requirements related to the sender include securing the right to disseminate information, prohibiting the spread of falsehoods, violation of honor, promotion of immorality, and rumors, as well as observing intellectual property rights. Regarding the receiver, the requirements involve ensuring the right of access to information, protecting privacy, and providing user education. In the message dimension, prohibiting the publication of security-related content, content filtering, and promoting suitable content are essential. Finally, concerning the medium, requirements such as ensuring equitable access, protecting data, and developing national information networks are emphasized. The study concludes that cyber governance based on Shi’a jurisprudence can contribute to creating a healthy and secure environment in cyberspace.

This article aims to clarify the meaning of sex and gender and to extract their characteristics in Butler’s thought, critically examining these concepts as the most fundamental theoretical constructs in the field of gender studies. Judith Butler, one of the most influential contemporary thinkers in this domain, considers both concepts as cultural and social constructs. She introduces gender as a performance shaped through the repetition of social acts and norms, lacking any fixed essence. Butler’s gender theory seeks to challenge binary gender systems, emphasizing fluidity and multiplicity of gender identities. She views gender as a social act and highlights the role of language, discourse, and cultural systems in constructing this concept. Her perspective provides the recognition of diverse identities. The analysis of Butler’s views shows that her conceptualization, by rejecting essentialism, denying nature and fixed essence, and construing sex and gender as social constructs, is incompatible with Islamic approaches, which assume fixed identity, non-fluidity, essence, and reality. These contradictions highlight the need for localized theorization aligned with Islamic-Iranian culture. The present study employs a library-based method for data collection and qualitative content analysis for data analysis.

The phenomenon of unveiling (kashf-e hijab) is one of the significant and debated issues in Iran’s cultural and political circles. This study aims to examine the motivations behind unveiling among women over 18 in Tehran in 2023, using a survey method. Data were collected through a researcher-designed questionnaire and face-to-face interviews with 992 unveiled women across Tehran’s 22 districts. The results indicate that individual motivations play a prominent role in this phenomenon, with 83.6% of participants believing that “being unveiled is not a significant issue,” while only 15.4% consider hijab a religious obligation. Additionally, 60.8% of these women are actively experiencing unveiling, although normative pressures remain high, as 83% are reluctant to be labeled “unveiled.” The family’s role is also notable: 76.1% identified family lifestyle as a factor influencing this type of attire, while 69.6% of spouses and 51.5% of parents support this choice. Political and protest motivations also contribute to the phenomenon. The study concludes that cultural policymaking requires a comprehensive understanding of all dimensions of unveiling, from individual and political reasons to family and social contexts.Keywords

The mourning rituals of Muharram, as a ritual dimension of Islam, have long held special significance and legitimacy. Considering the changes brought by modern life in contemporary Iran, transformations in mourning rituals can also be observed. To better understand these changes, this study explores the phenomenological understanding of the lived experiences of participants in mourning rituals. Deep interviews were conducted with 21 participants in mourning gatherings (hey’at) in the city of Marand, using a purposive sampling method until theoretical saturation was reached. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach and the analysis method of Diekman et al., ten semantic clusters emerged, including: the role of worldly utility belief (cohesion and meaning-making functions of transcendent utility belief), religious socialization, commercialization of mourning rituals, hyper-reality in rituals, and misalignment between form and content. The findings indicate that, due to the prominence of worldly utility belief and participants’ shift toward personal needs and individual benefits, the commercialization of mourning rituals has increased, and signs of ritualization in mourning practices are observable.