نوع مقاله : علمی پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
The hidden signs in this mosque, as an arena for displaying the hegemonic ethno-religious power of the Sunni Baluchis, with its unusual dimensions and height and unfamiliar forms and decorations, have territorialized its surrounding context and produced specific semantic rules. Therefore, the main goal of the present study is to criticize and analyze the Mecca Mosque as a multilayered text and find its overt and covert ideologies through critical semiotics. Critical semiotics creates critical awareness in individuals about phenomena. The Mecca Mosque has provided the opportunity to represent concepts and issues that can take us deep into the cultural layers of the Baloch and provide a relatively deep understanding of the situation of this people in contemporary society.
1. Introduction
Due to ethnic, religious and cultural diversity, Zahedan has a heterogeneous and diverse population. The diversity of religions and denominations from the formation of this city until the Islamic Revolution has never been a matter of dispute and peaceful coexistence between different religious groups has been established in this city. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the continuation and emergence of Shiism as the official religion of the country, the Baluch people, due to differences in religion, became less integrated with the central government than the Sistani's and became more and more isolated in identity. The similarity of the Sistani’s in terms of religion, race and language with the central government and the main body of the nation has given them advantages over the Baluch people, which has led to discriminatory policies against a different ethnic context. The widening of the gaps between the two ethnic groups in the province has intensified, as the religious view of Iran is dominated by the emphasis on Shiism, the Sistani’s (given that in comparison with the Baluchis religiously with Were the same) as the executive arm of the central government throughout the province, and the government found a supportive view of them. It created gaps in the city's discourse. The objective manifestation of these gaps can be seen in the most symbolic religious element of the city, namely the Makki Mosque. The hidden signs in this mosque as an arena to show the ethnic-religious hegemonic power of the Sunni Baluchi's, with unusual dimensions and heights and unfamiliar forms and decorations, have dominated their surrounding context and produced special semantic rules. In the face of such a situation, the narrator of the Makki Mosque has experienced signs of apathy because the signs used in this mosque have acted in disconnection with the previous meanings of the Baluch mosques and have become an unfamiliar text for the narrator. Also, the objective dimensions of the tense discourse that emerged in Zahedan, which has been created since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution by granting social privileges in terms of religious affiliations, contradictions and social conflicts in its hidden layers, can be found in political violence and Observed protest actions to destroy the symbol of mutual power. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to critique the Makki Mosque as a multi-layered text and find its overt and covert ideologies through critical semiotics and tries to change and not change its various layers in Check at different times. Critical semiotics expresses the hidden relationship between power and its ideological processes with the signs that appear in the discourse of the city and creates a critical awareness of phenomena in people. Such awareness through signs enables individuals to recognize and respond to discourse action and related structures and relationships. Finally, the Makki Mosque has provided an opportunity to represent concepts and issues that can take us deeper into the Baluch cultural layers and provide a relatively deep understanding of the people's situation in contemporary society.
Research Question(s)
What are the signs of the discursive tension that has emerged in the urban landscape of Zahedan regarding the Mecca Mosque?
2. Literature Review
2.1. The gap that has emerged in the discourse of Zahedan's urban landscape
Zahedan is a new city among the metropolises and provincial centers, a city that was created by chance. If it were not for the colonial rivalry between Iran and Russia and the British effort to establish the Noshki-Quetta and Quetta-Inland Iranian Railways with the aim of reaching Mashhad and ultimately confronting the Russian Transcaucasian Railway in the 19th century, perhaps the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province would be a different city today (Mushtaq Gohari, 2017). The “Dazdab” region (the old name of Zahedan), not because of its good natural location – like many historical cities in the country – (Bahlouli-Aval and Ansari, 2014, 27), but because of its strategic location towards India [which was under British rule at the time], came to the attention of the British government during World War I. Although Zahedan has a short life, due to the special conditions of the Sistan and Baluchestan region, it has witnessed many developments (Karimian-Bostani, 2003, 79) and has acquired a very rich and diverse cultural context. The urban landscape of Zahedan is one of the most complex cities in the country in terms of social characteristics. A city that emerged from the convergence and synergy of exogenous and endogenous forces at a critical point in the history of the country, the region and the world (World War I) on the geographical basis of the Baluchistan border region, and then, under the influence of a set of political, military and economic factors, it became one of the important and prominent population centers in the southeast of the country. The main indigenous population of Zahedan is currently the Iranian Baluchi ethnic group native to Baluchistan, Iran, who have gradually settled in this city over the past hundred years. The second largest population group in the region is the Zabulis, Birjandis, Yazdis, and Kermanis, followed by Afghan immigrants and a small group of Sikhs who have lived in the city since its founding. A population of several hundred thousand people from different nationalities, tribes, ethnic groups, social classes, and groups with specific historical and cultural characteristics and different perceptions and attitudes towards life (Behrouz, 2014) who have lived peacefully side by side. However, social relations between Baloch and non-Balochs (Sistanis) changed with the introduction of a specific narrative of modernization to the Sistan and Baluchestan region that considered the unification of ethnic groups as a means of nationalization, and with the penetration of new components that did not conform to traditional society. The fusion of elements from these two different worlds created unprecedented conflicts and contradictions and caused numerous identity gaps (Siyasar, 2019).
3. Methodology
Since the urban landscape of Zahedan is read as a text and the existential basis of the text is a semiotic system, semiotics is chosen as the method of this research. However, in the semiotic approach, there are various methods for analyzing the text, and in order not to make a mistake, the authors resort to one of the basic principles of Pierre Bourdieu in sociological analysis, namely “methodological multiplicity”, to explain their method. This method means using any analytical method that is most compatible with the subject under study, and during this process, continuous and continuous questioning about the method at every moment of application is necessary.For critical semioticians, ideology is like a system of meanings hidden in public messages, and a critical approach to it leads to individuals' awareness of the discursive action that has emerged and the recognition of social structures and relations through the represented signs.
4. Results
In Zahedan, which has ethnic and religious diversity, the behavior of ethnicities finds meaning in connection with power. In this city, each of the existing forces tries to find a solution in its own way to deal with the identity gap that has emerged. Traditional forces and authorities try to strengthen clan foundations, religious authorities through religious cohesion, educated people by adhering to new organizations, etc.; because whenever identity is threatened, it gains more cohesion, and in a society where religion is considered the first component of identity, ideology is the dominant element of discourse. Due to their ethnic, cultural characteristics, tribal fabric, and deep feelings of ethnic affiliation, along with their distance from the political center of the country, economic inadequacies, social inequalities, and the events that have befallen this people throughout history, the Baloch people have tried to redefine their identity boundaries, demonstrate their power in the region, and legitimize their dominance. Power manifests its signs in space and through architecture; the tangible manifestation of these signs can be observed in the most symbolic religious element of the city, the Mecca Mosque. The hidden signs in this mosque, as an arena for displaying the hegemonic ethno-religious power of the Sunni Baloch, with unconventional dimensions and heights, and unfamiliar forms and decorations, have territorialized their surrounding context, thereby creating symbolic insecurity and producing specific semantic rules. The symbolic insecurity that has emerged as a product of religious division is represented in the form of “symbolic retaliation” and in the transgression and violation of native symbols and in the dimensions and forms of elements. The Mecca Mosque, with its very large dimensions and the use of foreign patterns and symbols, is a representation of the discursive tension that has emerged in the urban landscape of Zahedan.
کلیدواژهها English
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