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Public spaces are the renditions of the power symmetry within the social setting it resides in, and is both controlling and confining of power. In an ideologically-laden context, urban design encompasses values and meanings and is utilized as a means to construct the identity and perpetuate visible and invisible boundaries. Hence, gendered spatial dichotomy based on a biological division of sexes is often employed systematically to evade the transgression of women into the public spaces. The production of modern urban space in the Middle East is formed in the interplay between modernity, tradition and religion. Examining women in public spaces and patterns of interaction with gender -segregated and -mixed space, this book argues that gendered spaces are far from a static physical spatial division and produce a complex and dynamic dichotomy of men/public and women/private. Taking the example of Iran, normative and ideologically-laden gender segregated public spaces have been used as a tool for the Islamization of everyday life. The most recent government effort includes women-only parks, purportedly designed and administered through women's contributions, as well as to accommodate their needs and provide space for social interaction and activities. Combining research approaches from urban planning and social sciences, this book analyses both technical and social aspects of women-only parks. Addressing the relationships between ideology, urban planning and gender, the book interprets power relations and how they are used to define and plan public and semi-public urban spaces. Lack of communication across disciplinary boundaries as result of complexities of urban life has been one of the major hindrances in studying urban spaces in the Middle East. Addressing the concern, the cross-disciplinary approach employed in this volume is an amalgamation of methods informed by urban planning and social sciences, which includes an in-depth analysis of the morphological, perceptual, social, visual, functional, and temporal dimensions of the public space, the women-only parks in Iran. Based on critical ethnography, this volume uses a phenomenological approach to understating women in gendered spaces. Interaction of women in women-only parks in Iran, a gendered space which is growing in popularity across the Muslim world is discussed thoroughly and compared vis-à-vis gender-neutral public spaces. The book targets scholars and students within a wide range of academic disciplines including urban studies, urban planning, gender studies, political science, Middle Eastern studies, cultural studies, urban anthropology, urban sociology, Iranian studies and Islamic studies.--

This study explores the role of education as means of creation and maintenance of religious hegemony in Iran and Turkey. In the context of this study, state-sponsored systems of mass education aim to socialize generations of children into accepting the ideology and values of the dominant groups as the normal state of affairs. Hegemony, thus, is advanced not solely by excluding oppositional forces but by moral leadership throughout the total ideological and socio-political structure. Reviewing the notion of education in Islam and the role of the Quran and Sunna and other sources of knowledge in Islam, the study focuses on the impact of Shari'a in forming the theories of state and education in Islam. Representing two different schools of Muslim thought, Iran and Turkey have different interpretations of the state and its role in education which determines the degree of involvement and extent of authority of the political and religious leaders over education. Unity of Islam and the state in the Iranian theocratic system provides an ideologically-laden education which is rooted in one principle: training a new generation of pious, "ideologically committed Muslims". However, the endeavors of the Turkish secular state have been focused on establishing a mass popularized secular education in order to produce nationalist citizens. The Iranian revolution of 1979 contributed extensively to the awakening of the religious revival, calling for a shift from a Western model of social order to the one deeply rooted in Islamic beliefs and values. The close link between education and ideology in Iran is apparent from the goals set for educating the young, most of them openly political: acceptance of God's absolute authority manifested through the authority of ulama; support for the political, economic, and cultural unity of all Islamic global community (umma) and for oppressed peoples (mustaz'afin); rejection of every form of oppression, suffering, and domination. The four ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic, inseparability of religion and politics, Islamic revival, cultural revolution, and creation of a committed Muslim, have had a direct impact on Iranian education. The "Unity of Education Act" in the Republic of Turkey placed all educational activities under strict government control by introducing a state monopoly on education. Kemalism is based on an emphasis on national and republican principles and secularism in which religion has no place and is left out of the scope of formal education. Hence, the transmission of religious knowledge from one generation to another was only possible through informal channels such as family, the small community or underground activities of religious orders. Islam, however, gradually penetrated the public life in Turkey and challenged the secularism. The goal of the Turkish national education as to unite the entire nation through a national consciousness, to think along scientific lines, and intellectually as well as worldly, leaves no place for Islamic religious education. In spite of the government's emphasis on a secular and nationalist system, Islam remains as a force, particularly in its capacity to utilize new elements required for a modern society. Although Islam has not yet challenged the supremacy of secular education in Turkey, it expanded its influence both in formal and informal education, content and structure.