دکتر زینب تاجیک

During the Qajar era, Iranian society entered a new phase of change and transformation, which was significantly different from the previous periods. Modernity challenged Iran's previous educational systems and provided the context for modern education to enter Iran. Although the history of girls' education in Iran has been studied from different aspects, in this research, by describing official reports, legal documents, newspapers, letters and by analyzing historical data applying the method of conceptual history, we seek to examine the evolution of the concept of education and its effects on the girls' education system in order to make a fair judgment. We should also have more information about the resistance against new schools for girls. Before the entrance of modernity in Iran, the meaning of education included calculated planning and activity in order to discover individual talents for achieving worldly and hereafter happiness and perfection. However, at the time of the establishment of new schools, education encountered a semantic change in the sense of modernism, modernization, being against religion and tradition. According to this semantic transformation, modern schools for girls sought to create a western identity for Iranian girls. Examining the conceptual history of education shows the fact that the opponents of modern schools for girls, despite having no determination and effort to reform girls' education, neither had a problem with girls' education, nor did they oppose these schools because of personal interests. Rather, with attention and sensitivity to the conceptual change of education, they resisted the establishment and expansion of new schools for girls and were aware of the goals of the founders of new schools for girls. Their resistance shows that opponents and religious scholars were worried about anti-religious, anti-traditionalism aspects of these modern schools which aimed to create a completely western identity for girls.

The view of “gender acceptability of ethics” is one of the challenging issues raised in the intellectual circles of the believers in this trend since the end of the 18th century and with the rise of feminist activities. Feminists were divided into two groups in their stance against this idea; a group claiming complete equality of men and women denied any difference between them and another group emphasized the supremacy of the female gender by imagining the ideal of a single gender as a mirage. Although the question of gender acceptability of ethics has no precedents in the Islamic tradition, but according to the detailed and critical studies that Muslim thinkers (especially philosophers) have made about the issue of nafs (carnal soul), it is possible to give a negative or positive answer to this question. For this purpose, in this article, relying on the principles of Mulla Sadra’s Philosophy, we have attempted to inquire this school in response to the “gender acceptability of ethics” and while showing the shortcoming of feminists in not paying attention to the anthropological and psychological foundations of this issue, we have made a comparative comparison between the answers arising from Mulla Sadra’s principles and the thoughts of ethical feminists and we have come to the conclusion that the viewpoint of gender acceptability of nafs is more appropriate. Of course, this does not mean ignoring the difference in ethical standards between men and women. Our method in this research is descriptive-analytical.

The relationship between gender and training, and particularly moral training, is one of the important issues that have attracted scholars' attention after the expansion of gender studies. Although Khajeh Nasir Toosi did not specify the effect of gender on moral education, by studying the nature of moral education, a question comes to mind that whether gender can be considered as a variable in moral training or not? To answer this question a descriptive analytical method was applied and after explaining the nature of moral training, the link between moral training and psychology in Khajeh Nasir’s thought is stated. It is indicated that according to Khajeh Nasir’s principles, the human soul both in the position of occurrence and in the position of action needs the material body. Also, the relationship between the soul and the body, in his opinion, proves that the human soul is gender-oriented. From Khaje Nasir's point of view, the connection between moral training and psychology as well as the analysis of the stages of moral training and the manner of obtaining moral dignity in the soul indicates a two-way relationship between the soul and the body, confirming the gender oriented nature of moral training in his philosophical system.

The relationship between the human reality and gender has been among the most challenging problems in the past few decades, solving which paves the way to answer many questions related to the women. With the advent of feminist activists to philosophical and theosophical discussions, this question got even more importance. Some people (such as liberal feminists) denied the feminine identity and opted for the equality of genders, while another group of feminists recognized the gender differences. Although this question has not been discussed in the egologistic and humanistic discussions of the theosophists and theologians of Isfahan Theological School, an analysis of their deep discussions on egologism can provide a negative or positive answer to this question. Adopting the descriptive-analytical method and inquiring about the most important egologistic discussions of Mir Damad, Mulla Sadra, Fayz Kashani, and Allameh Majlesi such as the contingency of ego, the relationship between ego and body, and the way ego manages body, this article aims at examining the status of gender in ego. It finally concludes that in the light of these scholars’ egologistic principles, the “genderedness of ego” is closer to reality. Moreover, it is found that ego cannot be free from gender attributes in its contingency, individuation, actualization, and manner of practice in this world.