The changes that affected Iranian women's lives after the coming of Islam in the seventh century were similar to the changes that occurred in their lives after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In both cases these changes were largely wrought by men. / Iranian women have been actively involved and have participated fully in diverse religious, political, and social contexts since the eighteenth century, but frequently without due acknowledgment. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the belief that education was a pillar of freedom began to gain popularity among Iranian women. The efforts of women to secure an equal place with men in the nation's educational institutions received support from a number of women writers and poets in the form of protests and petitions. It was through this process that Iranian women learned the importance of education in freeing them from patriarchal bondage. The twentieth century, however, witnessed the destruction of most of Iranian women's hopes and quests. Different Iranian governments enacted a series of important laws and regulations touching on "women's issues." Most of the time, however, these governments failed to consider the voices, positions and demands of women concerning these "issues." / In the last two decades, under the Islamic Republic, male authority figures continue to determine women's rights, identity, education, employment, and so on. Changes which affected the status of Iranian women came in the form of different religious decrees and laws that were justified by the argument that they all complied with the Quran and the hadiths. / Iranian women have refused to abandon their quests for an improved or even equal status. Among these women, there are those who still believe that equality can be achieved under the Islamic Republic. Women such as Rahnavard and Gorgi are relying on a "dynamic jurisprudence" that would lead to "Islamic justice." There are also other women who argue that in order to bring about true social justice, women's oppression and subordination in any form must be eliminated. They find such injustice ingrained in the existing culture. Women such as Kaar and Ebadi are making women and those in power aware of the need to achieve a "civil society," based on "social justice" through the process of "revealing the law." This group is hoping that a gradual cultural revolution brought about by women will lead to the establishment of "such justice."

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In a knowledge-based economy the collaboration between university, industry and government is vital for growth and innovation (Etzkowitz, 2008). A conceptual model of the relevant macro and micro environment was developed using the theoretical constructs from the literature on systems of innovation theories including, National Systems of Innovation, Porter’s ‘Cluster’ or ‘Diamond’ model, and the ‘Triple-Helix Model’ of university–industry-government interactions. The role of culture and trust in different systems of innovation theories was examined, and the role these elements play in UIC activities was found to be particularly important, though vague on the processes. A generic model of university-industry-government interrelations was developed to aid a systemic understanding of the mechanisms (primary barriers and drivers) for productive collaboration. This systems model was used in the formation of policy instruments designed to improve university-industry collaboration (UIC), and thereby the means of regional economic development. These policy experiments are applied to the case of Iran. However, since the future of Iran in this context is highly uncertain due to cultural, political and economic factors there are few assumptions which can be relied upon as a basis for traditional innovation management practice. Instead, it is intended to use the systems model in a series of scenario-based analyses of the effectiveness of policy instruments on the UIC associated with two Iranian cluster industries. A questionnaire survey and a series of semi-structured stakeholder interview methodology were used to build a basis for these scenario techniques. The method of systems modelling to generate policy change scenarios for UIC is a novel feature of this research. Analysis of the causal relationships of UIC activities in Iran found many were biased to create an established behaviour pattern (culture) which is overwhelmingly negative. This negative behaviour is manifest as a significant lack of trust at all interfaces between the primary actors in the system. According to the results of this research, trust is influenced by many factors including government activities, institutional structure, institutional culture, and also national culture of the country. The systems model is a complex interaction of reinforcing loops that emphasizes the scale of challenge policy-makers face in creating effective innovation systems, and may explain why few developing countries have been successful in achieving economic transition. This research shows how a policy development framework was formed using the UIC systems model to understand the structural problems facing Iran. A set of evolved states (exploratory and future-backward scenarios) served to illustrate the effect of these policy choices, and therefore to inform an improvement agenda for UIC activities in Iran.

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to assess the extent to which household characteristics and behaviours exert their effects both directly and indirectly on childhood mortality through the more proximate factors that can be measured within the context of society. A child mortality model, primarily based on Mosley and Chen's framework, is developed by linking individual and societal factors. Then the model is tested with empirical data from the Fars Province of Iran. The survey data were collected in 1991--92 in five counties of Fars. It consisted of 10665 interviews and covered 67 villages 14 towns and one city. Three sampling techniques were employed: (1) proportional stratified sampling; (2) cluster sampling; and (3) simple random sampling. / Three levels of analysis were carried out in this thesis: individual, societal and contextual. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were done for subsets of variables based on the child mortality model that were identified to be good predictors of child mortality and which were also identified theoretically as proximate and intervening variables. / The individual level analysis reveals that place of residence, education of the mother, and occupation of the father from the socio-economic, factors; and age of marriage of mothers, pregnancy order, and pregnancy age from demographic factors; and visiting doctors during pregnancy, type of delivery, pregnancy duration, birth weight, and vaccination from the health status factors; and housing quality are the important determinants of child mortality in Fars. / At the societal level, rural setting, the literacy rate of the villages and assets indexed by sheep per capita are the important determinants of child mortality. Also child mortality rate differentials were found to be compatible with that of additive developmental index of regions (counties). / Contextual analysis shows that birth weight, pregnancy duration, pregnancy order, and house facilities are, in Iran, significant predictors of child mortality. Among all the variables, these variables appear to be the most proximate variables and the other variables, including socio-economic and demographic variables, significant intervening variables. / The results of this dissertation support the claim that child mortality can be a sensitive indicator of human development and quality of life both at the individual and societal levels. Most significantly it appears to be prerequisite to fertility decline. The most important finding from these analyses is that child mortality is influenced both by the individual's characteristics as well as by community characteristics. In better words, social organisation as proposed in the child mortality model matters.

In this dissertation, I undertake an empirical analysis of Iranian punitive practices over the last century. In thiscontext, I set out to investigate three issues. First, I critically examine the claim that modernity is characterizedby a diminution of corporal punishments, considering both the older humanist-progressivist verions of this claim and therevisionist-Nietzschean versions that have been advanced by several scholars including Michel Foucault, David Rothman,Michael Ignatieff, John Langbein, Gerhard Oestreich and Marc Raeff. In particular, I examine the relationship betweenmodern torture and might be called the "disciplinary process" that is said to characterize modernization. Second, I evaluate Chomsky and Herman's hypothesis that developing societies are characterized by a specific economy of violence that might be described as "state terrorism." Third, I test the utility of Foucault's theoretical approach to the study of power. / Dans cette these, j'entreprends une analyse empirique des coutumes punitives iraniennes depuis un siecle. A cette fin, j'examine trois aspects. Premierement, j'examine d'une maniere critique le point de vue suivant lequel, la modernite se caracterise par une diminution des punitions physiques, tout en considerant l'interprétation traditionnelle humanistico-progressive de ce point de vue et les interpretations Nietzscheo-revisionnistes qui ont ete suggerees par plusieurs penseurs, tels que Michel Foucault, David Rothman, Michael Ignatieff, John Langbein, Gerhard Oestreich, et Marc Raeff. Plus precisement j'examine la relation entre la torture au XXieme siecle et ce que l'on pourrait appeler le "processus disciplinaire" qui, soi-disant, caracterise la modernisation. Deuxiemement, j'évalue les hypothèses de Noam Chomsky et d'Edward Herman suivant lesquelles les sociétés en voie de développement sont caractérisées par la violence d'une manière bien précise, et qui pourrait etre decrite comme "une économie de terrorisme d'état." Troisièmement, j'examine l'utilité de l'approche théorique de Michel Foucault pour l'etude du pouvoir. fr

'Allegories of the Veil' analyses the relationship between architecture and clothing as architecture. It expands the meaning of dwelling and of dwelling places (as they have been defined and conceptualised by scholars such as Martin Heidegger and Edward Casey) from architecture to women's dress. People's awareness of space and their interaction with it are crucially mediated by where and how they dwell. Moreover, dwelling greatly influences behaviour. This study interrogates the way in which building belongs to dwelling. It conceptualises specific women's clothing (the traditional dress and the veil [chador in Farsi]) as a dwelling place that influences (limits) women's spatial awareness and movement in space. It argues that once women's clothing has shaped the behaviour and awareness of women (mirroring the organisation of social relations) it becomes like a habitus. In that sense, clothes are not only physical but also generative spaces which can be translated into social space (and vice versa). Last but not least, this study explores how the changing architectural cityscape of Iran has altered the meaning of private and public space in the country. It argues that contemporary domestic architecture in Iran has disturbed the continuity of design and architectural forms, which previously had been an inherent feature of all architectural spaces in the country, including women's clothing. These new forms disrupted the complementary relationship between the chador as an enclosed space and as an extension of the domestic sphere, as well as facilitating the fast encroachment of modernity on traditional architectural places, including the 'chādor'.

This thesis explores the contemporary genre of popular digital photography, with a specific look at photographs taken in/of Iran. It focuses on the contemporary practice of 'photoblogging' or photography-based weblogging. Photoblogs are the result of the daily posting of digital photographs concerning everyday life in Iran on personal blogs specifically dedicated to photography. The title of the thesis, Camera Iranica, refers to the subject and scope of the study, as well as to its digital-ethnographic field site. I demarcate this as a conceptual and transnational cultural field, encompassing the multitude of places and spaces, on- and offline in which Iranians across the world engage in the practice of producing and viewing popular digital photography. Iranian photoblogs are shown to operate in a manner contingent upon a particular 'visual legacy' of contested cultural identity politics since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, propagated inside Iran and in 'the West'. The thesis traces the social, economic and political implications of developments in photography and digital technologies in Iran in light of this backdrop, and explores how and why Iranians in Iran and abroad are taking up popular digital photography for visual storytelling projects, with 'Iran' as their visual subject. Based on the study's empirical findings, I extrapolate theoretical arguments concerning historical and cultural understandings of digital photographs shown and seen in online environments, and propose innovative methodological strategies for digital-visual anthropologists to continue work in these fields.

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