Between Law and Tradition: Women and Womanhood in Iran’s Nasim-e Shomal

Year 2021, Volume: 12 Issue: 1, 118 - 139, 07.05.2021

Serhan Afacan

https://doi.org/10.19059/mukaddime.809094

Abstract

Issues related to women constituted some of the most significant debates in modern Iran especially following the Constitutional Revolution of 1906. Women’s education, working conditions, as well as their civil and political rights were also among the widely discussed subjects in the periodicals published in Iran in early-twentieth century as later. This article explores some of Sayyid Ashrafu’d-Din Hosayni Gilani’s women-related poems which he published in his one-man Nasim-e Shomal newspaper which would later become the name he is publicly known. Gilani’s simple expression and extensive use of colloquial language in form of poetry made Nasim-e Shomal one of the most popular periodicals of the period. Although the newspaper covered almost every issue of its time, the problems of women, particularly those of “ordinary” women, were among its most common concerns. Besides, Gilani’s frequent use of Islamic teachings to defend women’s rights, albeit in a notably cautious manner, was another distinctive feature of his poetry.

Keywords

Nasim-e Shomal, Sayyid Ashrafu’d-Din Hosayni Gilani, Sayyid Ashrafu’d-Din Hosayni Gilani, Iranian Constitutional Revolution, Iranian women, Iranian Women, poetry in the Constitutional Period in Iran, Poetry in the Constitutional Period in Iran

Between Law and Tradition: Women and Womanhood in Iran’s Nasim-e Shomal

Abstract

İran’da kadınlarla alakalı meseleler özellikle Anayasal Devrimi’n ardından en hararetli tartışmaların konusu olmuştur. Kadınların eğitimi, çalışma koşulları ve medeni ve siyasi hakları, dönemin süreli yayınlarında etraflı şekilde tartışılmıştır. Bu makale, Nesim-i Şomal’i yayımlayan ve zamanla adı bu gazeteyle özdeşleşen Seyyid Eşref Gilani’nin kadınlarla ilgili şiirlerinden bazılarını ele almaktadır. Gilani’nin sade anlatımı ve gündelik dile şiirlerinde yoğun olarak yer vermesi onun gazetesini, İran’da erken yirminci yüzyılda yayımlayan süreli yayınların en popülerlerinden biri haline getirmiştir. Her ne kadar Nesim-i Şomal’de her konu ele alınmışsa da kadınların, özellikle de sıradan kadınların, sorunları gazetenin en çok üzerinden durduğu konular arasındadır. Ayrıca, Gilani’nin kadın haklarını, ihtiyatlı bir tarzda da olsa, savunurken sıklıkla İslami öğretilere baş vurması onun şiirinin ayırt edici özelliklerinden bir diğeridir.

Keywords

Nesim-i Şomal, Seyyid Eşref Gilani, İran Anayasal Devrimi, İranlı kadınlar, Anayasal Dönem İran şiiri

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