فصلنامه مطالعات راهبردی زنان
پیاپی 38 (زمستان 1386)

The manner of clothing is a cultural element of the society. In public places in the society, it becomes a public issue and states interfere in it in different ways as they do in other public issues. In any society, it is possible to identify the dominant form of fashion in any specific period. The institutionalization of a type of clothing in a society is considered to the result of the will of a nation, but states also directly or indirectly interfere in it in some cases. In modern societies, states determine and guarantee the limits of private and public domains. This paper is an attempt to explain whether it is possible to stably form the behaviors and feelings of a nation by compulsory mechanisms or whether it is necessary to use mental and cognitive mechanisms to institutionalize behaviors and feelings.

Clothing or hijab is a multidimensional phenomenon. On the one hand, it is a moral, religious, or epistemological phenomenon; on the other hand, it is a social, cultural, and political phenomenon. These various dimensions are so intertwined that it is impossible to study its social dimensions and aftermaths and leave its ideological and religious foundations intact. This research shows that five cultural subclasses which determine women’s choice of external clothing and hijab can be identified. In this paper, each of these external models are classified according to religious definitions and reference to Quranic verses and the individual’s conceptions of and attitude to clothing is evaluated.

If we consider clothing as a meaningful social act rather than a means of protecting the body, we have to interpret it by means of analytical frameworks associated with social meaning. Considering clothing as a symbolic matter and trying to unravel its symbols and meanings help us to look at this controversial issue from a new angle. Paying attention of the “regularities” of social acts and conventionality of symbols in semiotics can partly explain both the historical changes of clothing and the differences of viewpoints to clothing in different groups and various subcultures of a society. If cultural policy makers bring into consideration the “regularity” of clothing and its symbolic and conventional characteristic, cultural policy making can be correctly directed.

Clothing and hijab, as communicative media and social acts, are under the influence of cultural, social, political, and economic structures, on the one hand, and under the influence of social actors such as men and women, on the other hand. During the years after the Islamic Revolution, the Cultural Revolution for encouraging people to observe hijab did not quite succeed because of the internal vulnerability of the society and external threats. Thus, not observing hijab hurt the collective conscience of the nation and turned it into a social problem. I believe this problem can be accounted for through scrutinizing the process of the change of social values from extra-material to material and the rash, externally-driven, asymmetric development after the imposed war. Hijab as a social impairment is on the surface of the society but as sign of social problem is rooted in the depth of the society removing of which needs cultural engineering and adopting appropriate social and cultural policies.

The social phenomenon of fashion is not restricted to any specific society and culture. The emergence and disappearance of a fashion go through the five stages of creation, introduction, propagation, mass production, and demands for a new fashion. The exploitation of fashion by the capitalist system results in socio-cultural changes in other countries. Women’s inclination towards fashions can be explained through different approaches. Psychologically, man’s need for beautifying and showing himself / herself justifies his / her inclination to fashions. From a sociological perspective, categories such as pattern, consumption culture, life style, and body consciousness are at work explain the reasons behind inclination towards new fashions. There is no doubt that fashion is also closely associated with socio-economic class, the role of mass media, the process of globalization, and capitalism. The prominent role of fashion in women’s identification and the paradox of valuing the body or the soul challenge women’s identity in various ways. As a result, it needs serious cultural policy making.

If we consider hijab as a behavior, like any other behavior, it follows certain regularities. According to sociological and psychological theories, performing a behavior is influenced by certain factors one of which is the individual’s awareness of and information about the specific behavior. In other words, the individual’s level of cognition determines his / her action and behavior. This information and knowledge about objects, phenomena, and concepts are obtained through the process of socialization. In this paper, socialization is studied according to functionalism and symbolic interaction perspective. Here, family, school, age group, and social and communicative institutions are introduced as factors determining hijab socialization, with the disharmony and dysfunction of these factors resulting in the vulnerability of hijab socialization process.