The Clergy and the Issue of Entertainment in Iran during Pahlavi Era Case Study: The Approach of the Darsshaee az Maktab-e Islam (Lessons from the School of Islam) Magazine

Pahlavi's magisterial modernity has brought changes in Iranian society. Afterwards, the everyday life of people, including their entertainment, has changed. The clerics saw some of these changes in conflict with the Islamic Shari'a and thus criticized this situation. The aim of this research is to study the approach of Darsshaee az Maktab-e Islam (Lessons from the School of Islam), the most popular and durable religious magazine during Pahlavi period, towards the common entertainment of that era. The main questions of this research are which characteristics of common entertainments of that period criticized more by writers of this magazine? From their point of view, which factors led to the promotion of unhealthy entertainment? This research has been done in descriptive method. The findings of this research indicates that in the years preceding the 28 Mordad coup d'état the free consumption of alcoholic beverages was considered the great sin by the religious persons. After the coup, due to the increasing of sexual contents in the press and cinematic films, the criticism of writers of the Maktab-e Islam magazine focused on this issue more than any other subject. During the early days of its publication, regarding the reason for the spread of unhealthy amusements the writers of the magazine raised the possibility that Colonialists are going to stupefied individuals in order to dominate the society. At the end of Pahlavi era and under the influence of the leftist intellectuals, they emphasized on the Western Capitalism’ usage of these tools for stupefying the society in order to maintain its influence and gain more benefit.