مطالب

At the beginning of the Victorian Era (1837-1901), although British women’s activities were limited to housekeeping, their restriction in social activities and job choices, the increase in their population, were among the issues that led to the formation of new perspectives on women and their possibility of working outside the home. Meanwhile with the expansion of missionary activity in British colonies, Victorian women gained the opportunity to participate in missionary works beyond their homes. A significant number of them were attached with the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and came to Iran. They faced two challenges for proving their ability in creating a “new self and identity” versus “others”: 1) in Victorian society as a social identity equal to men, 2) in Qajar society for introducing “themselves” as a preacher of “new social identity” to Iranian women. Focusing on the conceptual framework related to the issue of “self, other and identity”, reviewing the surviving reports and documents, this article examines the causes and manner of the process that led to the formation of the “new identity” of these missionary women and their demarcation between “themselves” and the “other”, i.e. , patriarchal structure of the Victorian society and the CMS. It also reviews the feedback from their interactions with Iranian women as “other” in shaping their “new self and identity”. The achievements of this article show that the liberal and feminist actions of missionary women in creating a “new self and identity” in their homeland led to an open competition with missionary men in patriarchal structure of the CMS. Furthermore, following the interaction of the CMS women with different strata of Qajar women, their “missionary identity” faded and “their humanitarian self and identity” aspects replaced.

Non-governmental organizations as the third pillar and representative of civil society play a main role in socially excluded groups’ access to their citizenship rights including women. The most important aspect of citizenship is social citizenship which has a close relationship with public sphere. It seems that NGOs play a substantial role in facilitating women’s access to their social rights; however, their role, efficiency and effectiveness in realizing this goal are disputed by experts. The purpose of this study is to investigate efficiency of non-governmental organizations in women’s access to their social citizenship rights in Iran. This research has been conducted by a quantitative approach, survey method and questionnaire tool. The questionnaire, consisting of effective factors, was developed by library method and was presented to experts of women study in order to examine its face validity. The data of this study was gathered from three groups including 30 scientific and executive experts, 10 NGO managers and 319 people of NGO’s target population which were selected via stratified sampling. Data analysis rejected hypothesis of high efficiency and great power of NGOs in women’s access to their social citizenship rights in Iran.

One of the most complex issues in understanding the evolution of human society is religion. However, religion in this sense is not the spiritual dimension of confessional or rhetorical form; rather it is a social phenomenon that has long been considered as one of the fundamental components of human society. Archaeological excavations often lead to the unearthing of movable and immovable objects that bear an obvious symbolic insignia; this is suggestive of the roles of beliefs and convictions in the formation of these objects. For instance, during the Neolithic period in some archeological sites such as Catalhoyuk in Anatolia, Sheikhiabad in Kermanshah and a number of other sites in the Near East, some objects were found that can be considered as symbolic made for specific purposes according to humans’ rituals and beliefs. In the present article, we study the views and theories of anthropologists and sociologists about religions, and the views of archaeologists about symbolism and religion in the contemporary world and in the beginning of the Neolithic period. Employing an interpretive approach, we examine and analyze possible intentions behind construction and functions of these symbolic objects.

Shadow education, defined as private supplementary tutoring provided beyond the mainstream educational systems and formal learning spaces, has become a widespread phenomenon throughout the world. The present study adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological research approach to investigate the status and effects of shadow education practice in general education and teaching the English language in Iran. Through the purposive sampling technique, 10 ELT teachers and 10 EFL college students who had the experience of being engaged in such teaching practices and learning experiences were selected and interviewed. After conducting a thematic analysis of the transcribed data, the researcher obtained the following themes with regard to the nature and influence of shadow education in teaching English in Iran: (1) shadow education compensating for inefficiency in teaching, (2) shadow education providing more student-centered and humanistic teaching methods, (3) shadow education facilitating access to higher education, (4), shadow education creating business opportunities and (5) shadow education perpetuating social inequalities in the society. Finally, it was suggested that due to its tremendous growth and ubiquitous presence along with the mainstream curriculum in educational ecology, shadow education must receive appropriate attention from educational authorities, teachers and researchers in the country.