مطالعه زبان و جنسیت در خطبه شقشقیه و خطبه فدکیه با نگاهی به نظریه رابین لیکاف

Extended Abstract

This article, entitled “Language and Gender in the Shaqshaqiyyah and Fadakiyyah Sermons: A Critical Reassessment of Robin Lakoff’s Theory,” addresses a foundational and largely neglected question: to what extent can gender-based linguistic theories—most notably Robin Lakoff’s claim concerning systematic distinctions between “women’s language” and “men’s language”—be meaningfully applied to authoritative religious discourse in early Islamic society? In Language and Woman’s Place (1975), Lakoff posits that women’s speech, shaped by structural subordination within power relations, is characteristically more cautious, indirect, and deferential, exhibiting features such as heightened use of intensifiers, avoidance of taboo expressions, reliance on tag questions, and a preference for mitigating and hedging strategies. While influential in Western sociolinguistics, this model has been persistently challenged for its ethnocentric foundations and its limited capacity for cross-cultural and historical generalization.

Taking these critiques seriously, the present study conducts a comparative analysis of two seminal sermons attributed to the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them): the Fadakiyyah Sermon, attributed to Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ (peace be upon her), and the Shaqshaqiyyah Sermon, preserved in Nahj al-Balāghah and attributed to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (peace be upon him). Far from being merely devotional texts, these sermons constitute paradigmatic interventions in the political struggles of the post-Prophetic period. Their dense argumentative logic, overtly confrontational rhetoric, and highly charged moral claims render them particularly suitable for a critical examination of language, power, and gender.
Methodologically, the study integrates discourse analysis with a descriptive–analytical framework. Linguistic features identified by Lakoff—including color terminology, taboo and coarse expressions, intensifiers, so-called “empty adjectives,” indirect and mitigated constructions, hedging devices, and the use of oaths—were systematically extracted and examined through both quantitative and qualitative lenses. The analysis is grounded in established critical editions of the sermons, ensuring textual reliability and philological rigor.
The findings decisively challenge Lakoff’s theoretical expectations. Contrary to the assumption that gender produces discernible and stable linguistic differences, no statistically or functionally significant divergence is observed between the two sermons across the examined indicators. Color terms are marginal and primarily symbolic in both texts. More strikingly, taboo and harsh expressions—explicitly excluded from women’s speech in Lakoff’s framework—are unmistakably present in the Fadakiyyah Sermon and, in certain respects, appear with greater rhetorical intensity than in the Shaqshaqiyyah Sermon. Furthermore, the Shaqshaqiyyah Sermon contains a markedly higher frequency of oaths (approximately twelve instances) than the Fadakiyyah Sermon (around four instances), a pattern that unsettles Lakoff’s gendered attribution of swearing as a predominantly masculine linguistic practice. Equally significant is the fact that both sermons are characterized by unambiguous, direct, and accusatory argumentative structures, leaving little room for the forms of linguistic caution or indirection Lakoff associates with female speech.
These results strongly suggest that linguistic style within the discourse of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) is not organized along gendered lines, but is instead shaped by shared conditions of political contestation, claims to religious legitimacy, and a unified moral–cosmological worldview. The pronounced stylistic convergence between the two sermons—evident in their extensive use of imperatives, threat-inflected constructions, and politically charged metaphors—reflects a common Ahl al-Bayt identity, parallel modes of rhetorical formation, and a self-conscious positioning as a marginalized yet truth-asserting community in the aftermath of the Prophet’s death (peace be upon him).
This convergence invites several interpretive conclusions. First, it underscores the formative role of the Qurʾān as the dominant rhetorical template in Arab-Islamic culture, one that shaped authoritative speech across gender boundaries. Second, it indicates that in early Islamic politico-religious discourse, ethical and political agency effectively superseded conventional gender roles. Third, it points to a value-centered communicative paradigm in which principles such as justice, moral accountability, and the pursuit of truth functioned as primary determinants of linguistic form, relegating gender to a secondary and contingent position.

The significance of this study is threefold: (1) it addresses a conspicuous gap in Islamic rhetorical studies, where gender has often been treated as a marginal or derivative variable; (2) it offers a sustained critical interrogation of Western linguistic theories when transposed into non-Western, pre-modern contexts; and (3) it reconstructs the discourse of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) through an explicitly interdisciplinary historical–linguistic framework.
The article’s principal contributions include: (a) a re-reading of two foundational Islamic sermons through the lens of language and gender; (b) a conceptual critique of the presumed universality of Lakoff’s model; and (c) the articulation of an alternative paradigm in which religious–political identity, rather than biological gender, emerges as the primary organizing force behind linguistic style.
Finally, Ali Ghafarani was responsible for the overall research design, formulation of the research problem, theoretical critique, and final revision of the article; Reza Mohammadi conducted the methodological analysis, data extraction, and quantitative evaluation of linguistic indicators; and Fatemeh Rouhi undertook the qualitative analysis of the sermons, reviewed the relevant historical sources, and authored the sections pertaining to the historical–religious context of the texts.