Women Identity in the Second Pahlavi Regime; A Case Study of Zan-E Rooz Magazine and The Shah’s Speeches about Women

Abstract

How an idea is born and how a marginalized discourse is outstood? This is the question that discourse analysts in various fields always try to respond. This responsiveness always needs filling the Archive gaps of discourse analysis, so researchers who have intention to analyze, with reference of Synchronicity or diachronic, can understand and analyze the evolution of discourses in various fields inter-subjectively. This research is about to respond this question and understand women identity in the second Pahlavi discourse in contemporary Iran. In addition, this research tries to help discourse researchers to understand the nature of discourse controversy in the second Pahlavi era and in what extend the current controversies in Iranian society about the semantic hegemony on women identity these controversies have different or similar semantics with second Pahlavi and its affiliates' discourse. Based on the above matter, the Shah’s most important speeches along with Zan-e Rooz magazine, as a close magazine to the second Pahlavi's official discourse is being analyzed using Laclau and Mof method. One of the results of this research is understanding the nodal point of "being up-to-date" for the second Pahlavi's discourse, which stands in close attraction with “being social". This discourse has a big emphasis on beauty and appeal and marginalizes hijab, especially Chador, as opposing such epistemes with rationality and calls them dogmatism. In addition second Pahlavi severely antagonizes Marxism and religious identities, but if we want to discuss its dominant aspect, the most discourse controversies represented by Zan-e Rooz magazine and the Shah’s speeches are related to antagonizing religion and religious identities and deconstructing their bonds with women identity.

Keywords

• women identity
• second pahlavi regime
• zan-e rooz
• discourse analysis
• laclau and mof