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The Functioning of the Family Institution in Correspondence to the Drivers of Governance in the Safavid Era With an Emphasis on the Role of Women

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. in History of Shi'ism, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Shia Studies, Faculty of Theology, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran.

10.22059/jwica.2025.386286.2107

Abstract

the present study, using an interdisciplinary strategy and through the documentary loading of historical data in Max Weber's theory, examines the rational actions of women in the Safavid era as a key element of the family, and proposes the possible relationships of this action with the drivers of governance of the time in a descriptive-analytical manner. The main hypothesis is the existence of relationships between women's actions and the drivers of Safavid governance. In accordance with this hypothesis, the main question of the research is whether the actions of women in the Safavid era were uniform or diverse? And was there a possible relationship between these actions and the drivers of Safavid rule? The results of the research indicate the existence of actions of women in the Safavid era despite some restrictive family stereotypes. Value-oriented rational actions included endowment, acquiring education and some skills included writing books, and warfare. These actions were influenced by drivers such as the appointment of positions to manage endowment-related affairs, the shift from Sufi Shiism to jurisprudential Shiism, and the lack of gender discrimination regarding the aforementioned rational actions. Goal-oriented rational actions among Safavid women also exchanging goods, traveling, divorce, receiving dowries, and managing the country by some court women, which were themselves a consequence of drivers such as the legal system based on Safavid jurisprudence, the Safavid shift from Ghaliyyah to Imamiyyah, the Safavid break from the ethnic base of the monarchy, and the lack of government restrictions on some rational actions.

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Journal of Woman in Culture and Arts
Volume 17, Issue 3
October 2025
Pages 401-422
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