Cultural capital and Iranian women’s submissiveness: Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice

Abstract

Men’s domination and women’s submissiveness are the principles of patriarchal societies. In Iran’s patriarchal society, Iranian women also submit to men’s power in various fields. This article examines Fariba Vafi’s My Bird and Zoya Pirzad’s Things We Left Unsaid to scrutinize the interrelations between different forms of cultural capital and Iranian women’s subordination in the fields of vocation and marriage. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the findings of this paper show that Iranian men cause Iranian women to be obedient in the fields of vocation and marriage with the help of institutionalization and habituation of various forms of cultural capital in Iranian women. This article also demonstrates that Iranian women have to eventually submit to the patriarchal culture of Iran despite their access to self-awareness and effort to resist.