Woman in Development & Politics

Woman in Development & Politics

Woman, Sharia, and Modernity: A Critical Analysis of Gendered Themes in Akhundzadeh’s Dramatic Works and Writings

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Jurisprudence and Law, Women and Family Research Institute, Qom, Iran.
2 PhD Student in Women's Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.
Abstract
One of the few early Qajar intellectuals who acknowledged the of the traditional gender order on the perpetuation of Iran’s traditional society was Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh. Previous research has frequently overlooked a critical examination of the relationship between these views and his overarching anti-religious macro-project, despite the availability of numerous studies. The objective of this investigation is to investigate the fundamental inquiry: how are the ostensibly progressive themes concerning women in Akhundzadeh’s works formulated within a radical secular discourse, and how do they relate to his project of de-religionization? This article employs the theoretical frameworks of “Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis” and “Postcolonial Feminism” within a two-stage methodological design to examine gender themes in his plays, Maktubat-e Kamal al-Dawla, and philosophical essays in order to elucidate this discursive connection.
The findings of the first stage (descriptive) that 20 fundamental themes can be distilled into five organizing themes, which include the deprivation of liberty, monogamy, gender equality, female autonomy, and the recognition of their status, as well as hijab. These themes superficially appear to be in accordance with the discourse of Western modernity. Nevertheless, the second-stage (critical) analysis reveals that these themes actually construct a single overarching theme: the “instrumental reconstruction of woman as an object of modernity,” which is wholly in service of the radical project of the “complete abrogation of Sharia.” The article concludes that Akhundzadeh’s approach was effective in criticizing discriminatory traditions; however, its exclusive reliance on Western Enlightenment discourse rendered it a radical ideology that lacked an epistemological connection to the indigenous and religious capacities of Iranian society.
Keywords
Subjects

Adamiyat, F. (1970). The thoughts of Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh. Kharazmi. (In Persian)
Ahmadli, R. A., & Ahmadova, L. Y. (2023). The role of literary and artistic works of Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh in the formation of the national consciousness of Azerbaijan. Science, Education and Innovations in the Context of Modern Problems, 6(3–4), 126–134.  https://doi.org/10.56334/sei/6.4.10
Ahmed, L. (1992). Women and gender in Islam: Historical roots of a modern debate. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300162714
Akbari, S. (2021). Representation of female characters in the dramatic works of Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh (Master’s thesis, Payame Noor University, Tehran). (In Persian)
Akhundzadeh, M. F. (1976). Tamthilat [The plays] (M. J. Qarajeh-Daghi, Trans.). Kharazmi. (In Persian)
Akhundzadeh, M. F. (1977). Philosophical essays (H. Seddigh, Comp.). Savalan. (In Persian)
Akhundzadeh, M. F. (1978). The new alphabet and Maktubat (H. Mohammadzadeh, Ed.). Ehya. (In Persian)
Alavi-Talab, M. (2023). A study of women’s roles in the dramatic literature of the formative period in Iran: Based on Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. Woman in Culture and Arts, 15(1), 119–139. (In Persian)
Alborzi, A. (2017). Protestantism and the spirit of intellectualism: A critical rereading of the concept of Islamic Protestantism in the views of Shariati and Akhundzadeh. Politics Quarterly, 4(15), 23–38. (In Persian)
Algar, H. (1990). Mirza Malkom Khan: A study in Iranian modernism (J. Azima, Trans.). Sherkat-e Sahami-ye Enteshar. (In Persian)
Ameli Rezaei, M. (2010). The seed’s journey to the flower: The evolution of women’s status in Qajar prose, 1210–1340 AH. Tarikh-e Iran. (In Persian)
Aqahosseini, A., & Mahdipour, A. (2013). Deconstructing the discourse of the first wave of intellectualism in Iran: Mirza Malkom Khan, Akhundzadeh, and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani. Political Knowledge, 9(2), 45–68. (In Persian)
Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: An analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 1(3), 385–405.  https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410100100307
Bashiri, M. (1996). A critique and review of the works and ideas of Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh. Ashna, 5(28), 12–22. (In Persian)
Bayatloo, H. (2021). Story as a critical text in the Naseri era: A case study of Akhundzadeh’s Yusuf Shah, or the deceived stars. History and Islamic Civilization, 17(35), 109–139. (In Persian)
Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory Into Practice, 39(3), 124–130.  https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2
Farasatkhah, M. (2009). The beginnings of contemporary new thinking: Religious and non-religious. Sherkat-e Sahami-ye Enteshar. (In Persian)
Ganj-Bakhsh Zamani, S. (2008). A comparative study of the ideas of Voltaire and Akhundzadeh. Comparative Literature, 2(7), 125–154. (In Persian)
Gazerani, S., & Amini, R. (2010). The conflict between religion and modernity in the thought of non-religious intellectuals of the Constitutional era. Political Studies, 2(8), 147–174. (In Persian)
Hamidi, S. J., & Ameli Rezaei, M. (2007). The transformation of women’s status in pre-Constitutional prose: From the reign of Fath-Ali Shah to Muzaffar al-Din Shah. History of Persian Literature, 3(59), 6–24. (In Persian)
Hosseini, S. A. (2013). Religion and clergy from the perspective of Qajar-era intellectuals: Akhundzadeh, Malkom Khan, and Talebof (Master’s thesis, Urmia University, Urmia). (In Persian)
Kia, M. (1995). Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh and the call for modernization of the Islamic world. Middle Eastern Studies, 31(3), 422–448.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00263209508701062
Lazar, M. M. (Ed.). (2005). Feminist critical discourse analysis: Gender, power and ideology in discourse. Palgrave Macmillan.         https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599901
McElrone, S. M. (2005). Nineteenth-century Qajar women in the public sphere: An alternative historical and historiographical reading of the roots of Iranian women’s activism. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 25(2), 297–317. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-25-2-297
Mohanty, C. T. (1984). Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Boundary 2, 12(3), 333–358. https://doi.org/10.2307/302821
Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism without borders: Decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Duke University Press.        https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822384649
Musayev, S. S. (2019). Social and cultural ties of Mirza Fatali Akhundzade with his contemporaries. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 8(4), 1–5.  https://www.ijhssi.org/papers/vol8%284%29/Series-1/A0804010105.pdf
Najafi, M., & Faqih-Haqani, A. R. (2010). The history of political developments in Iran. Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies. (In Persian)
Najmabadi, A. (2005). Women with mustaches and men without beards: Gender and sexual anxieties of Iranian modernity. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520931381
Omidipour, Z., & Rajabloo, A. (2024). The construction of the modern woman in the modernist discourse of the Qajar period. History of Islam and Iran, 34(61), 11–41. (In Persian)
Orooji, F. (2016). Woman in the thought of Mirza Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh. Iran Namag, 1(1), 6–30. (In Persian)
Paidar, P. (1995). Women and the political process in twentieth-century Iran. Cambridge University Press.
Qeysari, A. (2004). Iranian intellectuals in the twentieth century (M. Dehghani, Trans.). Hermes. (In Persian)
Salari-Shadi, A. (2022). Akhundzadeh’s critical approaches to the Safavid government. Historical Essays, 13(2), 107–130. (In Persian)
Sayyid, B. S. (2000). A fundamental fear: Eurocentrism and the emergence of Islamism (G. Jamshidiha & M. Anbari, Trans.). University of Tehran. (In Persian)
Sheikh-ol-Eslami Vargahan, R., Asghari, N., & Aghayari Zahed, R. (2022). Stylistic features of the early foundations of contemporary Persian prose based on stylistics: The case study of Fath-Ali Akhundzadeh’s Tamthilat. Stylistics of Persian Poetry and Prose (Bahar-e Adab), 15(1), 103–118. (In Persian)
Sonboli, N., & Ghadimi-Qeydari, A. (2022). Women, polygamy, and child marriage in the Qajar period. Women’s Research Journal, 13(3), 85–105. (In Persian)
Swietochowski, T. (2002). Azerbaijan and Russia, 1905–1920: The shaping of national identity in a Muslim community (K. Firouzmand, Trans.). Shadgan. (In Persian)
Tabatabaei, J. (2013). A reflection on Iran (Vol. 2). Minavi Kherad. (In Persian)
Taghizadeh, S. H. (1960). Adopting foreign civilization. Yaghma, 13(149), 417–429. (In Persian)
Tahmasb, A., & Zarvani, M. (2017). Enlightenment and Islam in Iran: The case of Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh. Religious Inquiries, 6(12), 103–122.
Yazdanfar, F. (1988). An analysis of Akhundzadeh’s writing style. Iran Nameh, 7(29), 95–106. (In Persian)