University Of Tehran Press Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers 2538-5240 15 2 2025 06 22 Gender and Contemporary Social Worlds Gender and Contemporary Social Worlds 1 21 102217 10.22059/jstmt.2025.390502.1775 FA Hamid Parsania Professor, Department of sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. 0000-0002-2424-2931 Abolfazl Eghbali Assistant Professor, Department of Women and Family Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Economy, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. 0009-0003-3030-8399 Journal Article 2025 02 14 Discussions surrounding women, gender, and their social manifestations have historically posed significant challenges for the Islamic world. Various intellectual and social approaches - each grounded in distinct semantic systems - have addressed these issues from different perspectives. A macroscopic analysis reveals that two dominant semantic paradigms, Islam and modernity, underlie these approaches. The present study aims to examine these perspectives, analyze their underlying semantic systems, and conceptualize gender-based approaches within the framework of social worlds. This is an applied study, methodologically situated in the domain of qualitative research. The conceptual framework is based on the theory of social worlds, and the fundamental methodology is employed to explore the development of these discourses in the theoretical and socio-political spheres of Iranian society. According to the findings, key components of the Islamic theory of gender include gender essentialism, the social extension of gender, social systematization based on couplehood, and gender as an existential capacity. The epistemological foundations of this social world are rooted in Javaheri jurisprudence and transcendental wisdom, while its non-epistemological (cognitive) contexts include the social and political developments of the Constitutional Era and the Islamic Revolution of Iran. In contrast, the feminist theory of gender is characterized by concepts such as gender constructionism, transsexuality, gender fluidity, gender as a mechanism of domination, and the rejection of gender’s social extensions. Its epistemological contexts include Western feminist thought and the neo-religious and intellectual movements within Islamic societies, while its non-epistemological contexts in Iran are shaped by the legal inequalities between men and women and the political transformations of the 1970s. Discussions surrounding women, gender, and their social manifestations have historically posed significant challenges for the Islamic world. Various intellectual and social approaches - each grounded in distinct semantic systems - have addressed these issues from different perspectives. A macroscopic analysis reveals that two dominant semantic paradigms, Islam and modernity, underlie these approaches. The present study aims to examine these perspectives, analyze their underlying semantic systems, and conceptualize gender-based approaches within the framework of social worlds. This is an applied study, methodologically situated in the domain of qualitative research. The conceptual framework is based on the theory of social worlds, and the fundamental methodology is employed to explore the development of these discourses in the theoretical and socio-political spheres of Iranian society. According to the findings, key components of the Islamic theory of gender include gender essentialism, the social extension of gender, social systematization based on couplehood, and gender as an existential capacity. The epistemological foundations of this social world are rooted in Javaheri jurisprudence and transcendental wisdom, while its non-epistemological (cognitive) contexts include the social and political developments of the Constitutional Era and the Islamic Revolution of Iran. In contrast, the feminist theory of gender is characterized by concepts such as gender constructionism, transsexuality, gender fluidity, gender as a mechanism of domination, and the rejection of gender’s social extensions. Its epistemological contexts include Western feminist thought and the neo-religious and intellectual movements within Islamic societies, while its non-epistemological contexts in Iran are shaped by the legal inequalities between men and women and the political transformations of the 1970s. https://jstmt.ut.ac.ir/article_102217_0bb4e00e2126ea77a7a7ce9c60053c1a.pdf