Islamic Art Studies

Islamic Art Studies

Representation of Women in the Photography of the Iran-Iraq War; A Foucauldian Reading of Discipline and Agency in Light of the Values of Islamic Art

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Ali Rezaei 1
Ilnaz Rahbar 2
1 Master degree, Department of Art Research, Faculty of Art, Architecture and Urban Planning, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Art Research, Faculty of Art, Architecture and Urban Planning, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/ias.2026.577454.2454
Abstract
The representation of women in war photography is one of the most important arenas for the formation of discourses of power, gender, and social action, and one of the central axes of committed art during the imposed war. In the dominant discourse of war, women are mostly depicted in roles such as motherhood, support, and service provision, and their bodies carry moral and religious meanings such as sacrifice, duty, dignity, and martyrdom-seeking, which simultaneously reflect Shi'i values and the revolutionary discourse. The present research aims to examine Foucauldian mechanisms of power, discipline, and normalization, and their relationship with agency, female resistance, and women's Islamic identity within the framework of these revolutionary Shi'i values in the photography of the Iran-Iraq war. This study, with a qualitative approach and based on a combination of Foucauldian discourse analysis and religious meaning-making, has analyzed a collection of selected war photographs from archival and library sources. The results showed that the representation of women is largely formed based on gender divisions and established roles, and the female body is reproduced within the framework of committed art as a supporter of war; nevertheless, these very bodies can create possibilities for resistance and female agency within structural constraints and dominant discourses. Furthermore, the female body in these photographs also carries a sacred meaning; the wounded body is interpreted through concepts of divine trial, patience, and the dignity of suffering, the displaced body symbolizes moral victimhood, and the disciplined body with hijab is linked to jihad and the identity of the revolutionary Islamic woman. Overall, the female body in these images appears at the intersection of power and sacredness, and its understanding requires simultaneous attention to visual mechanisms of power, the discourse of committed art, and the reflection of Shi'i values within the Islamic semantic horizon.
Research Objectives:


Identifying and explaining the patterns of representation of the female body in the photography of the Iran-Iraq war, and analyzing its relationship with the discourse of power, prevailing gender divisions, and revolutionary Islamic values.


Analyzing Foucauldian mechanisms of power, discipline, normalization, and biopower in light of the values of Islamic art in the depiction of women in selected photographs of the Iran-Iraq war, and examining their implications for female agency and resistance.


Research Questions:


How are women represented in the photography of the Iran-Iraq war, and what relationship does this representation have with the discourse of power, gender roles and divisions, and revolutionary Islamic values?


Which Foucauldian mechanisms of power, discipline, normalization, and biopower can be identified in the depiction of the female body, considering the values of Islamic art, in selected photographs of the Iran-Iraq war, and what possibilities and limitations do these mechanisms create for female agency and resistance?
Keywords
War Photography
Women
Foucault
Power
Islamic-Revolutionary Discourse
Subjects
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