women

Open Access Article

1 - Using Shunpikes: Women's Strategy for Overcoming Social Constraints in Tourism
hamed bakhshi fatemeh atri

The current paper examines the differences between men's and women's tourism experiences as an aspect of leisure. Four factors, including normative restrictions, female roles, economic weakness, and lack of security feeling, lead women to regulate their tourism travels More

The current paper examines the differences between men's and women's tourism experiences as an aspect of leisure. Four factors, including normative restrictions, female roles, economic weakness, and lack of security feeling, lead women to regulate their tourism travels different from men. For this purpose, the data of the National Survey of Values, Attitudes and Behavior of Tourism in Iran, with a sample size of 5009 people from all provinces of the country, were secondary analyzed. Eight hypotheses related to tourism motivations and behaviors, including having tourism experience, and choosing accommodation, vehicle and tour, were compared between men and women. The results showed that women who traveled alone or with their friends/colleagues, comparing with men, traveled more with tours, less by personal cars, less for recreation purpose, and more for pilgrimage motivation. Women were more likely to travel for visiting relatives when they were alone, and were less likely to camp in trips when traveled with their friends or colleagues. Although the frequency of women who traveled alone or with friends/colleagues were less than men, since their trips with families and relatives were more than men, the total amount of domestic travel by women were not significantly less than men. While the number of foreign trips of women were less than men, the frequency of foreign trips of employed women were not significantly different with men. It seems that despite the serious shortcomings in the quality of women's tourism experience compared to men, by using structural and normative shunpikes, they tried to compensate it. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

2 - The Issue of Iranian Older Women Living Alone: Case Study in Tehran and Alborz Provinces
mirtaher mousavi Masoomeh Maarefvand maryam rahnama komamardakhi laleh maarefvand

Older Women Living Alone (OWLA) are one of the most vulnerable groups due to the circumstances of the society and it is necessary to plan a specific program to support them. No specific program to support OWLA has been designed and implemented in Iran and for this purpo More

Older Women Living Alone (OWLA) are one of the most vulnerable groups due to the circumstances of the society and it is necessary to plan a specific program to support them. No specific program to support OWLA has been designed and implemented in Iran and for this purpose it is necessary to assess and prioritize the needs of this group. In this study semi-structured interviews with experts, policy-makers, and managers and OWLA were conducted and their contents were analyzed. Targeted-sampling and snowball-sampling was performed in Tehran and Alborz provinces and continued until saturation was achieved. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded in three steps and the categories and subcategories were obtained. The most important reason for living-alone among elderly-women is the death of their spouse and marriage of their children. In order to be independent, they try to manage their finances by saving, while at the same time take care of their health, are treated for their illnesses. Many of them don't want to remarry in old-age. Relocation due to home sales in old age means that in many cases their communication network is limited to their children and families and social participation is limited among them. The communication with family-members, care, independency, financial support, social-interaction and social-participation, security and a sense of security, geographical access to health-care and rehabilitation-services, training and awareness raising, entertainment and leisure appropriate to old-age are issues that need to be addressed in policies and planning related to OWLA. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

3 - Investigating the Role of Family Factors in Suicide Attempt (Case Study: Women in Abdanan)
Mojtaba Shafieinejad Akbar Zare Shahabadi Zahra Mohammadi Elnaz Azadvari

The phenomenon of suicide attempts is one of the most important socio-psychological harms growing worldwide, accounting for 1.4% of all deaths worldwide. The aim of this study is to discover family factors in suicide attempt which has been done by qualitative methodolog More

The phenomenon of suicide attempts is one of the most important socio-psychological harms growing worldwide, accounting for 1.4% of all deaths worldwide. The aim of this study is to discover family factors in suicide attempt which has been done by qualitative methodology and using the method of Grounded Theory. For this purpose, in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 women from Abdanan city whom suicide attempt and were selected by theoretical sampling method for more than one year. Nine main categories and one core category were extracted through the data coding system: strained family, family relationship inefficiency, Delinquent family, moral deviance of spouse, Divorced family, forced marriage, avoidance of unfavorable family atmosphere with marriage, marital disputes, experience of rejection and deliberate avoidance. Also, "Family Challenges - Significant Suicides" was selected as the core category, and finally a paradigm model derived from the data was set up. The findings indicated that family factors and family living conditions played an important role in the prevalence of suicide among women attempting suicide. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

4 - An Analysis the Experience of Domestic Violence Against Working Women (Case Study of Working Women in Tehran)
Akram Ghelichkhan zahra abdoli

Domestic violence against women is a type of aggressive behavior that occurs in close family relationships. Domestic violence against women is one of the harshest results of cultural, social and economic inequalities in different societies, that has irreparable conseque More

Domestic violence against women is a type of aggressive behavior that occurs in close family relationships. Domestic violence against women is one of the harshest results of cultural, social and economic inequalities in different societies, that has irreparable consequences on the victom. it seems that working women are no exception to the experience of this type of violence and access to resources has caused they face domestic violence. The purpose of this study is to qualitatively analyzing the experience of domestic violence of working women and women's perception of this violence in Tehran. In the methodology section; Qualitative methodology and grounded theory (GT) strategy were applied. The interviewees were selected purposefully and 12 employed women for more than three months were examined. 7 main categories and one core category were extracted through data encoding. Physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, economic violence, social violence, verbal violence, psychological stress. The results show that working women in Tehran have a diverse perception of domestic violence and experience different types of violence. It seems that type and amount of economic and social violence are different among working women and housewives. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

5 - Pathology of the Effect of Using Social Networks on the Religiosity of Girls and Women
Tahmineh Shaverdi ReyhanehSadat Sahragard Monfard

Women in relation to the role they play in the family, influence the formation of the identity of next generation;especially due to their role as a mother whom train the children and socializing the future generation. On the other hand, changes that occurred in the worl More

Women in relation to the role they play in the family, influence the formation of the identity of next generation;especially due to their role as a mother whom train the children and socializing the future generation. On the other hand, changes that occurred in the world in recent decades have provided opportunities to increase this influence. The main object of current research has been understanding the relationship between the use of virtual social networks and the religiosity of women and girls. A quantitative (survey) method has been applied in this research. The research tool is a questionnaire along with an interview. The statistical population of this research consists of women and girls aged 18 to 65 from the cities of Hamedan, Shar-e-Kurd, Shiraz, Ahvaz, Tehran and Kerman, which was conducted based on the evaluation of the developmental level of the provinces announced by the Management and Planning Organization, as well as, the Internet Penetration Rate. The sample size was 1418 people and themulti-stage sampling method were applied. Findings shows that although social networks have an effect on the religiosity of women and girls of the target community,but the effect coefficients are more on ritual dimensions than on belief dimensions and experiential dimensions of religiosity. Also, finding indicat social networks have some effect on Islamic behavior. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

6 - Sociological Explanation of Women's Violence Against Men
Parvaneh Danesh mihamad javad zahedi mazandarani nazanin khosh sima

The general view of family violence is usually referred to violence by men against women or other family members, but reports in this field show that sometimes men are victimized by women's violence. The main objective of this research is the sociological explanation o More

The general view of family violence is usually referred to violence by men against women or other family members, but reports in this field show that sometimes men are victimized by women's violence. The main objective of this research is the sociological explanation of women's violence against men. This research was conducted in a qualitative method and data was analyzed with the method of ground theory. The sample includes married men who have experienced violence in Tehran. The method of selecting the samples was purposeful and the sample volume reached saturation during the research after the 10th interview. The analyzes were done by three types of open coding, central coding and selective coding. The findings of the research include: background conditions affecting women's violence against men, including: 1- cultural issues, 2- social issues, 3- financial issues, 4- occupational and organizational conditions, 5- mental and psychological problems in the family, 6- history of addiction. In the family, 7- Knowledge of life skills; Intervening factors affecting the strategy of women's violence against men include: 1- personality difference, 2- cultural difference, 3- age difference, 4- difference in financial issues, 5- difference in the type of need, 6- marital beliefs, 7- gender beliefs; Causal conditions affecting women's violence against men include: 1- broken relationships, 2- intertwined relationships, 3- inappropriate family experiences, 4- occupational-organizational factors, 5- communication problems at work, 6- social factors, 7- cultural factors; Action and interaction strategies are: 1- Unhealthy communication behaviors 2- Retaliatory interaction pattern 3- Lack of love and intimacy; The consequences are: 1- Psychological injuries 2- The lack of power of the man in the family 3- Separation 4- Risky behaviors 5- Damage to the children 6- Weakening of the family foundation 7- Lack of household financial management; The research results show the existence of violence against men in the family and the consequences of this type of violence weaken the family institution. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

7 - Investigating Twitter campaigns of Violence Against Women
shima nasertork ali delavar afsaneh mozaffari tahmores shiri

One of the most important topics that social networks -Twitter- have paid attention to is violence against women in Iran. The most important theoretical support in the emergence of these campaigns is the reflection of the texts about violence against women. One of the m More

One of the most important topics that social networks -Twitter- have paid attention to is violence against women in Iran. The most important theoretical support in the emergence of these campaigns is the reflection of the texts about violence against women. One of the most important factors in the emergence of such waves is the important activists in the field of these social networks, who use their followers to reflect these contents. The most important campaigns in terms of the number of tweets and retweets was the "Girls of the Revolution" campaign. The aim of the research is to analyze the performance of Twitter in reflecting the content of violence against women in Iran based on the most important campaigns that have emerged in the last decade. This issue was analyzed based on the theoretical foundations of types of violence and networked movements. The research method is the content analysis of tweets and hashtags related to campaigns from 2016 to 2016. The research results showed that the most important themes are about social and political violence against women. In this regard, some campaigns and hashtags have caused insecurities in the society the most important of which was the campaign of the girls of Enghelab Street in terms of the number of tweets and retweets. the analysis of the themes of tweets showed the absence of news, posts and tweets of people related to campaigns and hashtags. Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

8 - Challenges and Conflicts in Women's Homeless Shelters in Tehran: A Qualitative Study
Maryam Isari

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Challenges and Conflicts in Women's Homeless Shelters in Tehran: A Qualitative Study       Maryam Isari<a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">*</a>       Introduction   Homelessness is one of the major social and urban issues in most parts of the Global North and Global South cities. In Iran, various structural processes have led to the intensification of poverty and homelessness, increasing the number of individuals in need of shelter in Tehran. Beside the exclusionary and criminalizing approach to the issue of homelessness, a pathological perspective has emerged on this field since the beginning of the contemporary era in Iran.   Nowadays, in accordance with Article 69 of Tehran's Third Development Plan, the municipality is obligated to address social issues by shifting from "social exclusion" to "social inclusion" approach. This involves creating infrastructure and providing services to support vulnerable citizens, such as expanding and equipping social service centers like local and regional shelters in order to provide housing for homeless and vulnerable individuals.   Some critical researchers view the establishment and supportive function of shelters with skepticism, considering them as part of a structure aimed at hiding the homeless population. Accordingly, developing shelters can be seen as a way to protect the population against homeless people. Some other researchers consider shelters as a social welfare response to the homelessness crisis, in contrast to the critical view mentioned above.   As of 2020, there have been over sixteen shelters for men and four permanent shelters for homeless women in the city of Tehran, the study and evaluation of the performance of these centers, their impact on the homeless population, and their internal challenges are essential. The current article attempts to explore the experiences of being in shelters and the common challenges and conflicts at various levels from the perspective of executive staff and women experiencing homelessness residing there.       Methodology   The current research is grounded in the qualitative tradition and interpretive approach. It involved interviewing 24 homeless women living in shelters and staff members (such as managers, social workers, assistants, psychologists, etc.) for an in-depth qualitative study. The research focused on all four women's shelters in Tehran in 2020. Convenience sampling and the snowball sampling method were employed in this study.       Finding   Despite the services offered in shelters, these temporary accommodations encounter a range of challenges and issues at various levels. challenges such as displacement and lack of acceptance of homeless women, power struggles, disciplinary measures, and tension can be observed in the shelter environment. Homelessness is closely linked with informality, such as involved in the informal economy, informal housing, and informal use of urban space.   Various rules and limitation of these places sometimes lead to conflicts. These conflicts sometimes result in the production of disputes and challenges in shelters, leading to the exclusion of homeless women. Based on this, one of the key challenges in the social space of shelters is the power struggles between homeless women and shelter staff. This becomes problematic when shelter staff attempt to enforce certain rules and disciplinary measures, which homeless women often resist due to conflicts with their lifestyle and habitus. Consequently, power dynamics, resistance, and assertiveness are evident among the women in these situations.   Among the various challenges faced by shelters, management challenges stand out. These include a high ratio of homeless women to social workers, difficulties with commuting hours, lack of procedural consistency, and ambiguity surrounding certain laws. The findings suggest that challenges in providing services to homeless women are some of the identifiable issues. Problems such as inadequate food quality, failure of rehabilitation and entrepreneurship programs for women, and absence of infrastructure for empowering women are among these issues.   One of the other challenges in shelters is the segmentation of homeless women. This includes the presence of elderly women and the juxtaposition of addicted and non-addicted individuals.       Conclusion   all residents of these shelters aspire to a better life and to leave the shelters behind. If homelessness on the streets challenges women's hopes of returning and integrating into society, life without a home in shelters puts them on the brink; the threshold of entering a new life or returning to the past life of homelessness. Many women residing in shelters are in a state of "permanent temporariness." They are constantly waiting for improvements in their lives and stepping out of the temporary space of shelters. They hope for acceptance from family, divorce from their spouses, reunification with their children, overcoming addiction, finding a job, obtaining a steady income, and having a place of their own. Therefore, the necessity of support mechanisms to empower and help them exit the shelters is strongly felt.   The experience of women's shelters in Tehran shows that these centers have provided significant services to immediately reduce harm and meet the basic needs of homeless women but have generally failed in empowerment, social integration, and their return to normal life. Therefore, the function and position of shelters have evolved for some homeless women from transitional housing to permanent housing. The primary reason for this lies in the inefficiency of economic policies and the weakness of social policies at a macro level, and at a meso level, in the insufficient inter-agency collaboration towards facilitating the integration of homeless women into society and removing mechanisms of social exclusion.   In such circumstances, grassroots actors and social workers cannot solely rely on their available resources—such as benefactors—to address fundamental issues faced by homeless women like housing and employment. While in a few cases, sustainable employment, housing acquisition, and life necessities have been provided for some homeless women through existing capacities and the involvement of benefactors, this is generally perceived as an “event.” To transform this event into a common practice, enhancing welfare policies at a macro level and elevating the supportive and facilitating role of municipalities to improve inter-institutional collaborations and attract required resources appears crucial.   Alongside this, attention to the challenges faced by shelters in improving their performance and efficiency in the future is vital. To address these challenges, specific solutions can be proposed that require further scrutiny and consideration of all stakeholders, capacities, and available resources. Recognizing the informal aspects of homeless women’s lives, providing mental health services to shelter staff, enhancing food quality, converting shelters into DIC (drop-in center) shelters, promoting entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for homeless women, prioritizing sustainable housing, reassessing outsourcing to contracting companies, and categorizing shelters based on the stratification of homeless women are some of the actions that can be taken. <div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">*</a> Assistant Professor in Sociology, Institute for Humanities and Social Studies in ACECR. maryamisary@gmail.com </div> </div>   Manuscript profile

Open Access Article

9 - Marginalization and Social Capital: A Comparison of Women in Marginal and Non-Marginal Areas of Sari
Javad Feli Ali Gorji karsami

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Marginalization and Social Capital: A Comparison of Women in Marginal and   Non-Marginal Areas of Sari       Javad Feli<a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">*</a>   Ali Gorji Karsami<a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title="" href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">**</a>   Introduction   Social capital is considered to be a network of relationships, interactions, and the values and norms governing these relationships, which can create the necessary platform for the realization of society's goals by fostering trust, convergence, and proper interaction. To achieve collective goals, relying on and emphasizing social capital—meaning establishing trust, creating a spirit of cooperation, and fostering correct interaction—is essential and precedes other matters. By establishing contact with each other, members of society can cooperate, and social relations and interactions between people are influenced by various social, economic, and cultural changes.   The gathering of immigrants with different cultures in unsuitable living environments, along with unemployment and poverty, leads to the creation of delinquent neighborhoods and various psychological problems. Criminological studies and social psychology have always found their most important subjects in big, dense cities and among immigrants. In underdeveloped countries, urbanization expands along with the growth of services independent of industrial development, leading to decreased production, hidden and open unemployment, and the rise of urban crimes. Marginalization and its consequences can be seen as social damage and problems. It should not be overlooked that, in addition to the negative aspects of marginalization in the social structure and spatial construction of cities, this environment also has negative consequences for the marginalized themselves. These include the presence of crime and delinquency in these areas, an inappropriate social, economic, and cultural environment for children and teenagers, a sense of insecurity, and the lack of welfare, cultural facilities, and necessary amenities for youth and teenagers to spend their free time. This creates a poor way of life for these people.   The main problem of the research is whether there is a significant difference in the amount of social capital among women in marginal and non-marginal areas of Sari city.       Methodology   This research employed a field-based survey method and was practical in purpose. The statistical population comprised 143,764 women over 15 years old in Sari. Based on Krejci and Morgan's standard sampling table, 384 participants were selected as the sample. To access the sample, a cluster random sampling method was used. Marginalized areas in Sari city, including Koi-e- Shahid Chamran, Ghafari neighborhood, and Azadi neighborhood, were randomly selected, while Farhang Street, Javadiyeh area, and Beasath area were chosen from non-marginalized areas. The data collection tool was a social capital questionnaire. The social capital measured in this research was divided into four dimensions: social participation, social trust, social cohesion, and social relations, each with 32 items across these four dimensions. The four dimensions of social capital were theoretically and operationally defined. The validity of the questionnaires was established through expert opinions, and the reliability, as measured by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.84 for the social capital questionnaire and for each component: social participation (0.74), social trust (0.91), social cohesion (0.83), and social relations (0.87). Data analysis used the Levene test, which showed a significance level (sig) of 0.114, greater than 0.05, indicating the use of the assumption of equal variances.       Findings   The research findings indicated that the average levels of social capital (99.63), social participation (23.36), social trust (27.24), social cohesion (27.38), and social relations (21.63) were higher among residents of non-marginal areas compared to the average levels in marginalized areas: social capital (74.87), social participation (16.37), social trust (19.27), social cohesion (24.46), and social relations (14.75). Therefore, it can be concluded that the type of residence—whether marginalized or non-marginalized—affects the amount of social capital.   According to the t-statistic results (t = 25.41, sig = 0.000 for the first hypothesis; t = 29.25, sig = 0.000 for the second hypothesis; t = -9.29, sig = 0.000 for the third hypothesis; t = 19.94, sig = 0.000 for the fourth hypothesis), at a 95% confidence level (α = 0.05) and (df) = 384 - 2, which is greater than the critical t-value (t = 1.64), the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected. The research hypothesis is strongly supported by the data, with 95% confidence, indicating a significant difference between the views of women from marginalized and non-marginalized areas of Sari regarding the four components of social capital. Both groups of women recognize a significant difference in the status and level of these components in their respective areas.   Additionally, the overall t-statistic (t = 24.963, sig = 0.000 for the main hypothesis), at a 95% confidence level (α = 0.05) and (df) = 382, is greater than the critical t-value (t = 1.64), leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis (H0) and strong confirmation of the research hypothesis. Therefore, we conclude with 95% certainty that there is a significant difference between the views of women in marginalized and non-marginalized areas of Sari regarding the status and amount of social capital.       Conclusion   The findings suggest that the type of residence—marginal or non-marginal—affects the amount of social capital. According to Putnam's theory, suburbanization or marginalization is a factor in reducing social capital. Coleman also identifies migration and relocation of families as influential in decreasing social capital. Ofe and Fuchs consider living in suburbs or marginalized areas as affecting social capital levels. Putnam's theory indicates that marginalization limits people's opportunities to interact, as they must allocate more time to daily tasks and less to socializing. This situation impacts all indicators of social capital.   Social cohesion is higher in non-marginal areas. According to the theory of social disorganization, factors such as reduced efficiency of social institutions like family and kinship restrictions, which act as informal forces to control social norms, are consequences of industrialization, urbanization, and increasing immigration. Marginal residents, many with less than eight years of peripheral experience, have not had the opportunity to form new relationships. Moreover, immigrants from diverse regions and cultures disrupt existing kinship and family ties.   The results also reveal a significant difference in trust levels between marginalized and non-marginalized areas, with non-marginalized residents showing higher trust. Marginal residents often experience mistrust towards government organizations due to indifference from officials and poor conditions in marginalized areas. Social inequalities and unfair income distribution further contribute to this mistrust. Additionally, rising crime rates and lack of cooperation in addressing these issues reduce public trust.   In conclusion, the social capital of marginalized women in Sari differs significantly from that of non-marginalized women. This difference is influenced by social, cultural, and economic contexts, as well as the cross-sectional perspective of urban decision-makers. Erosion of social capital in marginalized regions affects their resilience in risk management and crisis situations. <div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">* </a>Corresponding Author: Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. <a href="mailto:Javad_feli@pnu.ac.ir">Javad_feli@pnu.ac.ir</a> </div> <div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;"> <a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title="" href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">**</a> Ph.D. Student in Social Issues Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. drali.gorjik@gmail.com </div> </div>   Manuscript profile

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