ABSTRACT
Before the Islamic revolution, many Muslim men and particularly women avoided working in film, television, and other media industries due to their “Western” and “secular” work culture and their “un-Islamic” content. In the view of religious leaders, the Shah’s media policies involved the “violation of their communities’ ethical order and symbolic boundaries” (Abdollah Guivian 2006, p. 74). Many religious authorities, therefore, prohibited their followers from watching television programs and many religious families refrained from bringing television sets into their homes. After the revolution, the broadcast media were quickly identified as powerful instruments for spreading the message of Islam (Gholam Khiabany 2010). Radio and television were recognized as a “public university” by Ayatollah Khomeini in the early days after the revolution (Ruhollah Khomeini 2003b, p. 203). He emphasized that “we are not against television; we are against corrupt agents that serve foreigners by misleading our youngsters” (Ruhollah Khomeini 2003a, p. 284). The broadcast media, that were state-owned even before the revolution, became governed by revolutionary managers who ardently sought to implement Islamic values and teachings within the organization. Like all government bodies, the media were expected to become “Islamic,” not only in terms of the work culture, but more importantly, in terms of the content of its programs. As all women were required to wear the hijab in public, all female employees of broadcast media, including presenters and actors, had to follow the new law. According to some respondents in the present study, some women personally decided to observe Islamic dress codes at the time, but the new regulations were not limited to the hijab. The voice of solo female singers was no longer allowed to be broadcast. Female singers could only sing in a group, along with male singers. Even many male singers had problems, due to the ambiguous views of religious authorities about music in the early years of the revolution. Any physical contact between men and women on screen was prohibited. Women were required to act or dress in a modest manner. Despite all this, for the first time in Iranian broadcast history, observing Muslim women, who were largely excluded from this industry, found an opportunity to enter the broadcast media.
