Articles
Arts and Health (17533023)
Background: Complementary and alternative therapies (CAT), including artistic pursuits, have the potential to significantly aid in the management of symptoms and the enhancement of quality of life for patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). This research study investigates the long-term effects of art classes on women in a natural environment, with a focus on how art influences their perception of the disease and their ability to cope with its symptoms. Methods: A narrative inquiry was conducted, encompassing in-depth interviews with 17 women hailing from a charitable treatment center located in Iran. Results: The findings of the study demonstrate that participation in art classes has a substantial impact on the emotional resilience, psychological well-being, and physical symptoms of the participants. The study underscores the clinical efficacy of art in enhancing quality of life and its supportive role in physical rehabilitation. Conclusion: This research demonstrates the potential of incorporating art into treatment programmes for women with MS. The findings support the integration of art as a complementary therapy to promote physical and psychological well-being. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Contemporary Review of the Middle East (23477989)10(2)pp. 106-125
This article discusses how social class was depicted in Iranian cinema during the Reformist Era between 2001 and 2005 when the government of Mohammad Khatami advocated economic reforms and cultural liberalization. The agenda of the Khatami government was supported by the middle and upper classes who had modernist cultural attitudes and benefitted from these political and economic reforms. The articles also analyzes how reformist ideology operated through films by presenting a positive image of the modernist middle and upper classes while challenging the values of the traditional classes and portraying the lower class as victims of social problems. The findings indicate that the reformists, contrary to their slogans, sought to normalize the values of their supporter classes in Iranian cinema. © The Author(s) 2023.
Critical Research on Religion (20503032)10(3)pp. 249-266
Various political groups were involved in the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran, which led to the downfall of the Pahlavi regime. However, Islamic Fundamentalists gradually seized power and eliminated rival ideologies in the 1980s. In the late 1990s, Iranian Reformers won the elections and oversaw the management of the film industry for two four-year administrations until 2005. As liberals and religious democrats, the Reformers supported a modern portrayal of Iranian women in movies. The findings of this research challenge the previous studies that voiced optimism about the new individualistic portrayal of women in Iranian movies. The research methodology is based on Theresa de Lauretis's technologies of gender involving a narrative analysis of sixty-eight Iranian movies produced from 2001 to 2005. Given the political defeat of the Reformers in 2005, the main research question is to what extent has the portrayal of Iranian women gone beyond (or remained under) the ideological domination of Islamic Fundamentalism. © The Author(s) 2022.
Quality and Quantity (00335177)55(1)pp. 257-273
Cinema has a complex relation with the state and social reality in Iran. Between 2001 and 2004, Iranian cinema was under the control of the ideology of the Islamic Left. Students who played a crucial role in the Islamic Left’s restoration to power in the mid-1990s became frustrated and depoliticised as advocates of the democratic movement in the early 2000s. Iranian cinema depicted this movement during that time, however to date there is a lack of systematic research on the representation of students in Iranian films during that period. In this article, we use the theoretical concept of Comolli and Narboni (in: Browne N (ed) Cahiers du cinema, volume III: the politics of representation BFI London, 1990, pp 58–67) who argue that every film is political, inasmuch as it is determined by the ideology which produces it. A narrative analysis was conducted in order to analyze and discuss the dominant themes and modes of representation of the student movement during that period. For this purpose, twelve Iranian films have been selected through purposeful sampling spanning the indicated study period. Based on the cultural policy of the Islamic Left, it was assumed that the students’ cinematic image would serve to depict the realm of civil society and elaborate on the student’s involvement in political matters. In contrast, however, our findings show that the common themes in these films rather display the students’ personal goals that consist of the search for a professional occupation, stable income and romantic relationship. Hence, the results show that the Islamic Left failed to empower the student movement with their culture policy and thereby weakens its authenticity for and connection with the student movement. © 2020, Springer Nature B.V.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences (20392117)3(2)pp. 335-346
Subjects due to their class position may construct specific fantasies. Class fantasy, one of the given fantasies, is constructed by lower-classes in the society. This study is to critically scrutinize this type of fantasy in media discourse data. Furthermore, as ideology is a means by which cinema apparatus sutures audience within movie narration, the movie ideology and its relation with the given fantasy will be discussed as well. Indeed, the paper presents an attempt to illustrate how movies, through the construction of the fantasy, serve to justify the prevailing ideologies at the time. A case in point is melodrama. The data are extracted from one the most popular movies in the history of Iranian cinema, Ganj-e Qaroon (meaning Qaroon's Treasure). Analysis of the data is done within the frameworks of Bordwell (1995); Cormack (1992); and Zizek (2008a). Findings show that the class fantasy is constructed through the movie. That is the hero, reaching the object-cause of desire namely the girl of narration, may fill the class gap; however, a change in his position causes the object to lose its significance. Concerning the movie ideology, results indicate that the movie ideology, i.e. the class ideology, proposes class coexistence in peace. Indeed, the movie not only represents class fantasy but also uses the end of fantasy in its favor.
