Iran’s 1907 constitution and its sources: a critical comparison

Scholars of Iranian constitutional history have long recognized the influence of the Belgian and Bulgarian constitutions on the Iranian 1907 constitution. The exact character and extent of these and other constitutional influences have remained unclear, however. This article provides an analytical comparison of the 1907 Supplementary Fundamental Laws with the 1831 Belgian, 1876 Ottoman and 1879 Bulgarian constitutions that served as models and sources of inspiration. We also provide an easily navigable annotated version of relevant constitutional provisions in the footnotes for scholars interested in tracing models for particular provisions and have provided a complete version of the 1907 Supplementary Fundamental Laws and its sources on our website. In doing so, this article and the accompanying materials hope to clarify where these influences begin and end, where they have been modified or ignored, and where Iran’s constitutionalists innovated by introducing more stringent separation of powers or new institutions. It is thereby demonstrated that Iran’s constitutionalists critically engaged with previous constitutional traditions, rather than merely copying provisions from earlier models. Thus, Iran’s 1907 Supplementary Fundamental Laws should be regarded as an organic engagement with and global extension of the European liberal tradition, rather than as a merely peripheral or derivative development.     

Dehumanizing representations of women: the shaping of hostile sexist attitudes through animalistic metaphors*

Women are frequently depicted as non-human objects or animals. While female animalization has typically been conceptualized in the psychological literature as communicating a unitary perception of women, linguistic research suggests that there are at least two distinct animalizing linguistic metaphors for women that depict women at opposite ends of a sex-based power differential: ‘women-are-predators’ and ‘women-are-prey’. Are these linguistic metaphors able to shape sexist attitudes towards women? US Male and female undergraduates read an article, which concerned women voters in an election year, containing language that described women as predatory, prey-like, or in a humanized manner (baseline). They then reported their ambivalent sexist attitudes towards women in general. Consistent with both metaphors’ emphasis on sex-based power differentials, both male and female participants, who read about predatory women, exhibited greater agreement with hostile sexist attitudes than participants who read about prey-like women. This study suggests that the continued transmission of animalizing metaphors for women may help perpetuate prejudicial beliefs about appropriate roles for women in society. Media communicators might learn to identify and eliminate the use of the animalizing terms in their own work.     

Perceived Discrimination and Peer Victimization Among African American and Latino Youth

Perceptions of racial discrimination constitute significant risks to the psychological adjustment of minority youth. The present study examined the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and peer nominations of victimization among 173 (55 % female) African American, European American and Latino youth. All respondents completed peer nominations of victimization status whereas the African American and Latino youth completed subjective measures of racial discrimination. The results indicated that African American and Latino’s subjective perceptions of racial discrimination were linked to nominations of overt and relational victimization when rated by their European American peers. The results suggest that there is consistency between African American and Latino youth’s perceptions of racial discrimination and nominations of peer victimization by their European American peers.     

Situational Analysis: Centerless Systems and Human Service Practices

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model is a conceptual framework that continues to contribute to human service practices. In the current article, the author describes the possibilities for practice made intelligible by drawing from this framework. She then explores White's “Web of Praxis” model as an important extension of this approach, and proceeds to offer Clarke's “Situational Analysis” as another fruitful tool for practitioners who seek relational ways of engaging with clients. With the example of a practice scenario, readers can consider the practical possibilities that open up with the shift in perspective invited by situational analysis.     

Inquiring Into Life as We Live It

This article marks the first steps in an inquiry into community-based approaches to well-being for children and families. The author outlines the development of her methodological approach, which draws significantly from human geography. The study, while concerned with broader social and economic dynamics, is situated in a particular community which is undergoing economic, ecological, and political transitions. By grounding the study in this way, individual and collective experiences can be better understood and responded to. The intention is to make methodological decisions explicit in order to engage readers with the significance of theoretical considerations when embarking on qualitative research.     

Book reviews

The following books are reviewed.

Kateryn parr: the making of a queen, SUSAN E. JAMES, 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. 480 pp., ISBN 1 84014 683 4, £47.50

Mary Queen of Scots: romance and nation JAYNE ELIZABETH LEWIS, 1998 London: Routledge. 260 pp., ISBN 0 415 11480 2, hardback, £45; ISBN 0 415 11481 0, paperback, £15.99

Exile: a memoir of 1939 BRONKA SCHNEIDER, 1998 (Erika Bourguignon & Barbara Hill Rigney, Eds) Columbus: Ohio State University Press. xxi + 132 pp., ISBN 0 8142 0808 8

Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes: the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-18 CHERYL R. JORGENSEN-EARP, 1999 Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses. 400 pp., ISBN 0 8386 3788 4, hardback, £38.00

Women in Britain since 1900 SUE BRULEY, 1999 Basingstoke: Macmillan. vii + 227 pp., ISBN 0 333 61838 6

Working Out Gender: perspectives from labour history MARGARET WALSH (Ed.), 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. xi + 235 pp., ISBN 0 7546 0058 0

The Contest for Social Science: relations and representations of gender and class EILEEN YEO, 1996 London: Rivers Oram Press. xx + 396 pp., ISBN 1 85489 068 9, £30

Girls and Women, Men and Boys: gender in Taradale, 1886-1930 CAROLINE DALEY, 1999 Auckland: Auckland University Press, viii + 216 pp., ISBN 1 86940 211 1, NZ$39.95

Politics and Society: the Journals of Lady Knightley of Fawsley, 1885-1913 PETER GORDON (Ed.), 1999 Northampton: Northamptonshire Record Society. x + 535 pp., ISBN 0 901275 61 1, hardback, £20

Reading Witchcraft: stories of early English witches MARION GIBSON, 1999 London: Routledge. 242 pp., ISBN 0 415 20646 4, £14.99

Music and Gender PIRKKO MOISALA & BEVERLEY DIAMOND (Eds), 2000 Urbana: University of Illinois Press. xiii + 376 pp., ISBN 0 252 06865 3, $24.95

Parrot Pie for Breakfast: an anthology of women pioneers JANE ROBINSON, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xiv +177 pp., ISBN 0 19 288020 9, paperback, £8.99

Gender and Power in Britain, 1640-1990 SUSAN KINGSLEY KENT, 1999 London: Routledge. xii + 364 pp., ISBN 0 415 14742 5, £14.99

The Diary of Elizabeth Richards 1798-1825: from the Wexford Rebellion to family life in The Netherlands MARIE DE JONG-IJSSELSTEIN (Ed., with an Introduction by Kevin Whelan), 1999 Hilversum: Verloren. 171 pp., ISBN 90 6550 169 X, Fl. 35.26/Euro 16.00

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: comet of the Enlightenment ISOBEL GRUNDY, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xxiii + 680 pp., ISBN 1 19 811280 0, £30

Defining the Victorian Nation: class, race, gender and the Reform Act of 1867 CATHERINE HALL, KEITH MCCLELLAND & JANE RENDALL, 2000 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xiii + 303 pp., ISBN 0 521 57653 9     

‘Bigger than our friendship’: personal and political passions in the life of Anna Rochester, 1880–1966

This article explores the personal and professional life of Anna Rochester, Marxist economist and active member of the American Communist Party. Her political passions are intricately woven with the life and work of her romantic partner, Grace Hutchins, and together, they shared an ideological journey from Christianity to communism. While this personal relationship provided the emotional support central in sustaining a public career, their partnership was framed by strong allegiances to shared values and politics. In order to understand the merging of the personal and political arenas in Rochester's life, it is important to focus on the material conditions of Old Left organizational membership that encouraged a subordination of personal relationship to something, as Rochester believed, ‘bigger than our friendship’.     

Two Walks: Palestine and the Peak District. A Conversation between Raja Shehadeh and Marina Lewycka, September 2008

In the summer of 2008 novelist Marina Lewycka and author and human rights lawyer Raja Shehadeh went on two walks: the first in Palestine near Ramallah near the Beit Eil Jewish settlement, the second on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, the site of the mass trespass in 1932 to reclaim the right to walk on the hills. This account of the conversation they recorded on the second walk includes observations by Marina on writing about Palestine and Israel and reflections by Raja about the effect of the Israeli occupation on the fragile Palestinian landscape. It also includes their discussions on writing, walking and the meaning it has to each of them, as well as political comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict evoked by visiting these sites. They wonder whether a similar act of resistance would be possible in Palestine and what it would mean to the future of the conflict.