Graduate Program in Women's Studies

Part 1

After the Ministry of Education gave the go-ahead for a graduate program in Women's Studies (Karshenasi-e arshad-e motale'at-e zanan), the all-women’s Al-Zahra University, Allameh Tabatabai University, and Tarbiyat Modarres University debuted the program last academic year with 24 students (six women in Al-Zahra, two women and ten men in Allameh, and four and two, respectively at Tarbiyat Modarres). 

Before taking the nation-wide graduate program qualifying exam, prospective students select their preferred fields of study in descending order, and are subsequently accepted based on their test scores.  Due to Women’s Studies’ last minute inclusion among the selection of sociology programs, most students were entirely unfamiliar with the curriculum.  Lest we give our 12 men premature credit, the nature of the selection process is such that many of the students who did not score high enough for their top choices wound up in Women’s Studies by default.  Nevertheless, this year’s exam gave the program a more proper due and provided students with an introduction and comprehensive course description.  

At Allameh Tabatabai University, women’s rights attorney, Shirin Ebadi and sociologist Shahla Ezazi, who has conducted research on violence and women, serve on a faculty that is headed by Dr. Panahi.  Said department head is a male professor with no teaching or research experience on women’s issues, but much on “revolutionary” and “political” sociology.  Rumor has it many of this year’s applicants hail from the government office, Center for Women’s Participation, and Zanan magazine editor, Shahla Sherkat, herself the subject of many academic papers on Islamic feminism and an undoubtedly sought after candidate for teaching positions were she outside Iran, has allegedly applied as well.   

Bad Jens has translated excerpts of the document that was accepted by the Ministry, written under the auspices of Dr. Ali Shariatmadari:  

Introduction

During the last two decades, universities the world over became witness to the widespread development of new faculties of Women's Studies. These faculties, which, by virtue of their subject matter, are closely linked to other faculties within the field of the humanities, quickly adopted a variety of approaches, both in terms of method and content.

This women's studies program was elaborated in the belief that existing negative, fossilized perspectives on women have been the cause of serious constraints for women- as human beings, as members of the family, and as members of society. To change this, special attention needs to be paid to women's issues. This graduate program is intended to offer experts, advisers, and administrators a methodology with which to address women's issues, be it in economics, culture, or society. It is hoped to endow these people, who may play a role in national policy and in all other levels of society, with a judicious perspective on gender issues.

Fortunately, in Islamic Iran, with the institutionalization of the Islamic Revolution, we are sensitive to the solutions offered by Imam Khomeini, and to the special attention he paid to women's issues.

[...]  

Objectives:

Introduction to the status and the role of women today, from the perspective of Islam.

Expertise pertaining to various forms of administration and decision-making, and scientific competence in women's issues, from the perspective of correcting socio-cultural biases against women.

Applicability of the faculty's program in society:

Women's difficulties are among the major social obstacles for national development. The graduates of this program can apply their expertise to a number of different fields and be effective as advisers or as political decision-makers.

[...]

This faculty resorts to the methodologies of the human sciences, the medical sciences and the basic sciences. It shall strive to offer a fair and unbiased perspective of contemporary women of the world, in an academic, scientific and comparative fashion. [...]  

Length of study:

Two years, i.e. four semesters, each semester counting 16 weeks of classes. [...]

Courses

Course title:  Women in Islam  

Objective:  Study of the prevailing, canonical perspectives in the fields of ontology, moral values, and law and religious duty with respect to women.

Topics:

Introduction to religious women's studies

Common principles

Religious precepts concerning men and women

The influences of foreign cultures on Muslim culture

Masculinity in historiography and science

The human essence of women

'Equal Creation' (khalqat-e barabar) of men and women in the Qoran

Philosophy of the creation of men and women

Dispositions

Women's spiritual accomplishments

Women's strengths in spiritual development and accomplishment

Gnostic and philosophical perspectives

Religious scriptures

Predominant patterns

Sexual difference in Islam

Research on differences between men and women according to religious scriptures

Women's status in Islamic jurisprudence

Hejab and modesty

Philosophy of the hejab

The limits of the hejab for men and women

Ornamentation and dress

Research and answers to doubts concerning the Islamic hejab  

Course title: The Role of Women in Development

Objectives: Studying the role of women in the field of development studies, taking into consideration a variety of theories [...], in order to obtain a clear picture of gender and geography (joghrafi-e jensiat), and to study these from descriptive, normative and prescriptive standpoints.

Topics:

Public perspectives on development studies, and on women's roles in development

Fields of development research

Logical structure of a development pattern

A short history of women's development studies

Women in various theories of development studies

Various development theories

Conceptual, ideological and national indicators in general development theories

Women and social development

Various theories on women’s issues and development

Logical structure of a development model for women

Index of theories, ideologies and models concerning women and development

Indexes and specificities of a development model

Study and design of a development model for women

Basic concepts pertaining to gender and geography

Women's geography in Iran and abroad

Ecology and regional sexual differences (women's experiences and positions within different ethnicities)

Women in urban and rural environments

Course title: Women and Literature

Objectives: The study of literature, allegory and metaphor with respect to women's issues, and their influence on individual and social behaviour, and the study of negative representations in art and literature.

Topics:

Women in Persian texts

The image of women in Persian poetry

Particularities of bodily appearance

Particularities of affect

Particularities of education

Women in Persian storytelling

Love stories (before & after the Constitutional Revolution)

Educational and philosophical stories

Other genres

Women's contributions to the creation of works of literature

Women poets

Women writers

Aristocratic women

Women and post-revolutionary texts

The representation of women in poetry

The representation of women in prose

Women's contributions to literary works after the Revolution

The influence of foreign cultures on Iranian literature (with respect to women)

Arab culture

Western culture

Other cultures

Commonalities and basic differences between Iranian and foreign representations of women  

Course title: Women in the Family

Objectives: The study of women's key role in the family and in education [...]

Topics:

Basic parameters

Descriptions of the family as a system

Changes in family structures

Family typologies (patriarchy/matriarchy)

Women and the family

Women's position in the family (with respect to her husband, her children, etc.)

Women's relations and exchanges (with her husband, her children, etc.)

Women's roles within the family

Educational (ethical, religious, affectionate, social, economic, physical)

Administrative

Maternal

Woman's role as a spouse

Women's employment and the family

Women and housework

Women and work outside the home

Women's roles in the household economy

Study of women's misfortunes within the family (neglect of women's rights, ... )

The effects of development on the family

Causes of the crisis in the family throughout the world

The role of counseling in avoiding family crises

Course title: Women's Rights

Objectives: The study of women's rights in Iran and in Islam, with a focus on women's legal obstacles.

Topics:  

Law

General legal studies, including the foundations and the objectives of law, legal method, and legal powers

Women's human rights

Social rights

Women's rights within the family

Common conjugal rights

Women and men's specific rights and duties

Women's political rights

Women's positions in the course of political developments

Women politicians  

Course title: Sociology of the Sexes

Objectives: Study of social relations, social structures, and the sex-based division of labor and resources.  Study of the female sex as a changing component of society.

Topics:

Descriptions of sex and sexuality

Social relations and sexual difference

The sexual division of labor

Power and sexual difference

Race

Ethnicity

Social class

Theories of sexual inequality on the labor market

Theories of specialization of the labor market

Neoclassical theories

Theories of sexual difference

Violence

Teenage delinquency

Course title: Women and Public Health

Objective: Study of women's hygiene and physical well-being.

Topics:

Women and health

The importance of women's hygiene

The state of women's health (in Iran and abroad)

Biological, social, economic, and cultural factors concerning women's health

Family structures

Common infections and cancers among Iranian women

Infertility and the causes thereof, including socio-psychological causes

Women's biological particularities

Physical growth of the newborn, the child and the adolescent

Puberty and menstruation

Pregnancy, delivery and nursing

Menopause and old age

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