Articles

The Transformation of the Concept of Culture in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Vostok/Oriens '2014, №3

 
During the 20th century until the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Iranian culture was influenced by the West which had its impact in particular on the development of the Persian language. It has been characterized by the mass penetration of European borrowings. Anti-western policy became the characteristic feature of the clerical Muslim regime that took power in 1979 and included the sphere of culture. Linguistic policy was its integral part and was aimed at limited usage of western languages in Iran and against Western European borrowings into Modern Persian. The late 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century was the time of uncontrolled strengthening of English in the Iranian social life. It was the result of the influence of global civilization processes on the IRI. So as linguistic aspect of globalization is connected with the spreading of English as a world language, its borrowings in Persian are not surprising. Alongside in the Modern Iran the question of changing Persian into English is not on the agenda as well as parallel use of these two languages in the Iranian society as for example in India. Persian occupies a tenable position in the Iranian society.

Keywords: Globalization, IRI, Iranian culture, Muslim regime, language policy, Persian language, English borrowings

Pages: С. 120–125