Rereading the Function of the Islamic Press before the Revolution in Explaining the Status of Muslim Women (A Case Study: Lessons from the School of Islam Magazine)

Under the totalitarian rule of the Shah, the proponents of the school of Islam could not be indifferent in the face of this destructive process. In view of their responsibility to inform and enlighten the Muslim Ummah against this wrong path, they considered the press as the best tool for fulfilling this goal insofar as it was accessible by a wide range of audiences. Muslim thinkers were concerned mostly with the instrumentalist use of women by the government and its false promises in relation to the advancement of the Iranian society in a short time. Therefore, after the slogan of equality between women and men was adopted by the Pahlavi regime in the 1960’s, the proponents of the book of Allah took it upon themselves to redisseminate truthful Islamic beliefs lest this destructive trend affected and manipulated the clean essence of Muslim women by the regime’s propaganda. Accordingly, one of the religious magazines of the time titled the School of Islam strived constantly for preserving and protecting Islamic teachings during the reign of darkness by dedicating part of its content to rereading the status of women in Islam. This article is a review of sincere attempts by the aforementioned magazine. This investigation represents the undeniable fact that true scholars tried to protect the borders of the Islamic faith, despite the many limitations caused by the secular Pahlavi regime, through writing enlightening articles in the School of Islam as an effort to undo the Occidentalocentric programs of the regime for tainting the purity of Muslim women. One result was the active participation of women alongside men in response to the call of liberation by the late leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini.