survey of gender stereotypes in aleahmad's short stories

backgrounds: this study tries to detect gender stereotypes in the fictions of jalal-e al-e-ahmad (iranian writer). . gender stereotypes are defined as personal beliefs about gender differences in traits and behavior, largely attributable to socialization. in fact, gender stereotypes are fixed ideas about men’s and women’s traits and capabilities and how people should behave, based on their gender. al-e ahmad (1923-1969) is best known as one of the famous and effective iranian writers and he has written some short stories in persian. jalal al-e ahmad established himself as a major voice in modern persian fiction.theoretical framework: the theoretical framework of the current study is feminist theory and feminist literary criticism. in feminist view it is believed that, women are ignored in literature as a male affaire or they are imaged as men desire or expect. literature tends to show women in a way that appropriate with dominant patriarchal thought on human societies.image of woman in literature is a stereotypical and fixed image that place women in the predetermined formats and as a result leads to continuity of inferiority of women. feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory. feminist criticism tries to do scrutiny of male literature and reveals the suppressor gender stereotypes which result in brainwashing of readers. feminist criticism shows how presentation of women in male literature that presented as weak creatures against men who are strong. feminist criticism presents full picture gender-oriented thought in literature. methods: in this study methodology is content analysis that is based on hermeneutics. al-e ahmad’s stories that have been surveyed in the present study are: the sitar, the unwanted woman and five stories. in this research survey of gender stereotypes was performed in four categories: 1- personality traits 2- the roles in the family and domestic tasks 3- job roles 4- social and political rolesalso, recording unites are fiction’s characters and content unites are short stories. results: research findings show that gender stereotypes are visible clearly in jalal al-e ahmad s fictions.in ale ahmad’s fictions the women are stupid, passive, recessive, inferior, superstitious, emotional and passionate, untrue, deceptive and dependent and weak. but men are wise, active, dominant, superior, non superstitious, aggressive, loyal, independent, true, strong.in ale ahmad s fictions, women have roles at home and family; but men are breadwinner and sheik. women have not professional roles or they have jobs that called female jobs. also, women have not political roles. however men have professional and political roles. conclusion: image of woman in al-e ahmad fiction, is a stereotypical and fixed image of women that puts them in the predetermined formats. and indeed al-e ahmad’s fictions help to reproduce of gender stereotypes in literature and culture. the writer couldn't to present a positive ideal type of women in his fictions. presentation of women in al-e ahmad’s stories follows of two opposite stereotypical types: devil and angel, especially devil. in feminist view, his fictions are placed along works that their function is help to inferiority of women.