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Modernity made widespread changes in the institution of theIranian family reflected in the Persian novels. The aim of this research is to study the effect of modernity on the traditional structure of family based on the novel of Shohar-e Ahoo Khanoom. The method of research is qualitative content analysis. The effect of modernity on the relationship between family members, changeof family functions, presence of women in the society, and marriage and divorce are among the topics which were studied in this research. Afghani tried to depict the changes of Iranian family in the period of the first Pahlavi. The findings of this study shows that modernity diminished the high status of the father in the Iranian family and, on the other hand, women attained independence and individuality and became more active in the society. Moreover, more traditional members of the family developed tendency to modernity, though their understanding of modernity has been superficial.

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Non-verbal communications could be a part of visual signs that, because of their importance in interpersonal relationships and transition of meaning, are highly regarded by psychologists and sociologists. One of the major subdivisions of this topic is called "Body Language" that has existed in all human societies since ancient times. These non-verbal signs, some thousands of years old, have cultural and rhetorical functions, with common and sometimes conflicting aspects, in the cultures and social traditions of different tribes. The more ancient and comprehensive the literary context of a piece of research is, the more valuable that analysis in explaining the cultural, social, and even aesthetic aspects of texts will be. Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, as a representative of Iranian culture and thought in prehistoric age up until the Islamic era, can be the best representation of metalingual communicative performance in Iranian cultural history. Due to the prototypic nature of characters in Shahnameh, many of their non-verbal signs can also be considered the archetypal source of the behavioral interactions or body language of the Iranian people when in the context of epic their national and social identities as Iranians are formed. In this article, attempts has been made to decode these obscure and complex cultural concepts by exploring the "body language" in non-linguistic acts of main characters in Shahnameh. The results of this research demonstrate that the body language of characters in Shahnameh is not accidental but totally conscious. Indeed, the purpose has been to draw the attention of the readers to rethink the patterns of individual and social behavior of Iranian and non-Iranian ethnicities so to recognize the cultural identity mainly through irony and symbolism.