Medicine and Modernity: Peace and Health in the Hygienic Reforms in Iran

Introduction: Medicine is one of the most important indicatorsof development, modernization, peace and health in a society. Soevery developments in Iran were began from the medicine andhygiene path which changed the society’s view to a lot of thingsand in this space, modern view to medicine became a preface tocitizens’ civil behavior. Despite longstanding tradition inmedicine and Importance of physicians in the Community, thiscountry in some periods faced with regression and degenerationin this field. Different and infectious diseases of children wereone of this challenges which made a base for superstitious beliefs.Therefore, in Iran’s modernization programs, first reformationswere about developments in hygienic area.Methodology: The main question of this article is that whygovernments considered that the modernization of the Iraniansociety was initially possible by changing the health status of Iranand how did their attention to health promote peace andcivilization in this society The hypothesis of this research is thatthe thought and strategy of the Iranian elites and statesmen fromthe Qajar era, the beginning of the arrival of modernity in Iran,was that the path toward a healthy and modern society wouldbegin with improvements in hygienic condition. Thus withchanging perspectives toward medicine and educating newmedicine, there were efforts to institutionalizing hygiene and health in the society. So health programs were on the top ofreformation and modernization in Iran which considered healthyand dynamic population as the prerequisite of a strong society.This hypothesis has been tested in terms of historical sociologyand explanatory method.Structure: This paper tries to examine the development andmodern view to health from Qajar period to the IslamicRevolution. So the structure is consisted of an introduction aboutimpacts of medicine on modernity and peace and three sections.The first section examines the relationship between medicine andmodernity in the Qajar and constitutional period; section two isdedicated to arguments about the causes of hygienicmodernizations in the first Pahlavi era and its relationship withpeace and health and finally in the third section, relationshipbetween modernization in hygienic realm and empowerment ofIran’s society in the second Pahlavi are presented.Conclusion: Research findings indicate that hygienic reforms bygovernments are in line with peace and health in society which inturn shows the undeniable role of medicine and physician increating peace and health. To this end, the government s firstprogram for modernization in Iranian society has been to addresshealth issues as an introduction to citizen s civil behavior.Attention to the health of the body and soul led the society toconsider peace and tranquility which was holding the people fromsuperstitious ideas about the society’s issues. Therefore, in all ofthe manifestos of modernization and development in Iran, fromthe Kent Law to the Health Corps , national hygiene and healthhave played a key role. Based on this, they believed that actionsin this area, in addition to raising a healthy generation, will leadto a change in the domain of thoughts.

Keywords:

Medicine , Modernization , Public hygiene , Citizen’s civil behavior , Peace , Iran’s national health