Women and the Islamic Republic

Based on extensive interviews and oral histories as well as archival sources, Women and the Islamic Republic challenges the dominant masculine theorizations of state-making in post-revolutionary Iran. Shirin Saeidi demonstrates that despite the Islamic Republic's non-democratic structures, multiple forms of citizenship have developed in post-revolutionary Iran. This finding destabilizes the binary formulation of democratization and authoritarianism which has not only dominated investigations of Iran, but also regime categorizations in political science more broadly. As non-elite Iranian women negotiate or engage with the state's gendered citizenry regime, the Islamic Republic is forced to remake, oftentimes haphazardly, its citizenry agenda. The book demonstrates how women remake their rights, responsibilities, and statuses during everyday life to condition the state-making process in Iran, showing women's everyday resistance to the state-making process.

Child bride, a story that never ends: A look at experiences of Iranian women

Child marriage is one of the issues that deprive many young girls of their basic rights and lives. The present study aimed to explore Iranian child brides’ experiences of the consequences of early marriage. The participants were women living in Tehran who had married at the age of 14–18 years. The analysis of the participants’ experiences revealed four main themes, including ‘underlying causes of early marriages’, ‘concerns and negative feelings’, ‘exposure to violence’, and ‘consequences of early marriages’. Awareness of these challenges can provide useful insights to be used by social workers and policymakers to further support these women.

Molecular Investigation of Association Among Common IL-6 Polymorphism with Cytomegalovirus(CMV) Infection and Recurrent Miscarriage in Iranian Women

Background: Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is described as two or more spontaneous abortions. Until now, although various factors such as genetic, endocrinology, anatomy, immunology, and microbiology have been distinguished that affect abortions, the precise basic etiology in up to 50% of RPL cases are not determined. Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and host genetic background, like IL-6 SNP polymorphisms play important roles in RPL etiology. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate relationship among single nucleotide polymorphisms (-634C/G and -174 G/C) in the IL-6 gene with CMV infection and risk of RPL for early detection and treatment of RPL. Materials and methods: This case-control study was carried on 80 Iranian females with RPL and 80 healthy females as control group. The extraction of DNA from samples and detection of CMV and IL6 SNPs were determined by Tetra ARMS-PCR. Finally, the statistical analysis for detection CMV and two polymorphisms roles in RPL were analyzed by Epi Info TM software by X2 test. Results: Our results indicated an increased rate of CMV infection in RPL group (44%) versus the control group (25.45%). Also, the prevalence of IL-6 -634C/G genotype among RPL patients with CMV infection was 80%, while the frequency of this genotype among RPL patients without CMV infection was 50%. Furthermore, no substantial relation was found between IL-6 -174 G/C genotypes and RPL (P ≤0.0001). BesidesConclusion: This study not only indicated a significant role of CMV in RPL, but also showed CMV association with allele G in IL6 -634 among Iranian women. In addition, suggested the use of CMV and IL-6 -634 GG genotypes in RPL as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in Iranian population.

Islamic Revolution and Women’s Issues in Iran in the Aspect of Social Communication

Nowadays the problems of socio-cultural communication covers the gender issue and changes in the role of women in society in particular. Traditionally, the women status in Muslim countries is most vulnerable. Despite this fact, there has emerged such a socio-cultural phenomenon as Islamic feminism in the Middle East. Islamic Revolution was the first time when Iranian women had declared themselves as a social and political force. Imam R. Khomeini used their social activity for his own political purposes. Despite the promises of the revolution leader, first actions of the new government differed from those the citizens expected: most of the rights and freedoms were restricted or eliminated. Iran is currently ranked 148th out of 153 countries on the gender gap index, overtaking only the countries with difficult internal political and economic situation, such as the DRC, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen. The article analyzes the changes in the Iranian women status that have occurred in the following areas: civil status, education and science, economic activity, politics, art and sports. The positive measures taken in these spheres indicate that the society is undergoing a process of reconsidering the role of women, and the development of the women empowerment process in Iran will progress.

Letter to Editor: Tokophobia in Iranian women during the COVID-19 pandemic

This is a Letter to the Editor and does not have an abstract. Please download the PDF or view the article HTML.

Healthy eating index-2015 and breast cancer: a case-control study

Purpose Recently, evidences have suggested that healthy eating index (HEI), an index-based dietary pattern, may be a predictor for the risk of cancer. This paper aims to examine the association of HEI-2015 and its all components scores with the risk of breast cancer (BC), separately, among Iranian women. Design/methodology/approach In the present hospital-based, case-control study, 150 age-matched of cases (newly diagnosed female) and 150 controls were recruited. Data of dietary habits and anthropometric measures were obtained, and eventually, the HEI-2015 score was calculated. Multivariate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the relationship between the risk of BC across tertiles (Ts) of total HEI-2015 and its all component scores. Findings The results presented that in adjusted model, there was no significant difference between total HEI-2015 (p = 0.14) and its all component scores (p > 0.09) of healthy subjects and females with BC. Moreover, multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that HEI-2015 score was not associated with the risk of BC in either crude (p-trend = 0.94) or adjusted (p-trend = 0.73) analyses. In the analyses of HEI-2015 components scores, it was observed that the scores of grains (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.30–0.94) and total protein foods (OR, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.02–0.58) may have a relation with BC risk in crude model but after adjusting for BC risk factors, the mentioned associations changed to non-significant. Originality/value The findings of current study suggested that there was no significant association of total HEI-2015 and its components scores, independently, with BC incidence among Iranian women.