Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran

by Nina Ansary

  The daughter of the leader of the Babi community, Sadiqeh was born in the city of Isfahan and educated at home. She opened the first school for girls in Isfahan in 1918. Unfortunately, it was forced to close after only three months, due to the fact that the overall mind-set of that time was that educating females was against the established order and therefore improper. Girls were to be taught only household chores, and adult women were expected to remain in seclusion. Undaunted by the establishment, Dowlatabadi opened another school specifically for poor girls, called Ummulmadares.

  Sadiqeh Dowlatabadi (1882-1961)

  In 1919, Sadiqeh began publishing the magazine Zaban-e Zanan (Women’s Voice/Tongue), which advocated educational opportunities for girls and other progressive changes affecting women.

  The magazine also featured articles emphasizing Sadiqeh’s commitment to the Constitutional Revolution (which sought to free Iran from government corruption and foreign dominance)—and the role women played in bringing it about. In an editorial entitled “The Enemies Drew Their Guns,” she expressed her belief that education for women would lead to the country’s independence from foreign powers:

  It was love for Iran and the desire to see the constitutional government [succeed], as well as the thought of honoring and protecting the independence of Iran that brought [women] into the field of education. [Women] took up the pen to free Iran, to save our forsaken daughters and to help our nation. [Women] are not only unafraid to die but [women] consider it as an honor to make sacrifices for the good of the country and [women’s] freedom. Long live Iran. Down with the dictatorship and the enemies of Iran.41

  Not surprisingly, the publication faced strong opposition from Mullahs in Isfahan.42 Having cast women in a subservient role for centuries, their patriarchal culture was not about to change. When it came to their attention that Sadiqeh’s magazine was publishing articles by and for women, and that schools were being established to educate girls, the authorities recognized a new women’s movement being born in their midst, and they did not hesitate before shutting them down.

  But Sadiqeh refused to concede. When Zaban-e Zanan was forced to cease publication in Isfahan, she went to Tehran and began publishing it there. In 1921, she also established an association called Anjuman-e Azmayeshe Banuwan (Society-Testing Women).43 In 1922, she moved to Paris, where she received her BA at the Sorbonne and wrote articles for European women’s publications.44 Studying abroad was not a common practice even among Iranian men in those days; for a young woman, it was audacious.

  In the spring of 1926, Sadiqeh represented Iranian women at the International Alliance for Women’s Suffrage, the first time that an Iranian woman was present at an international conference.45

  Upon her return to Iran in 1927, this heroic woman fearlessly appeared unveiled on the streets of Tehran. It wasn’t until 1942, during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, that she once again began publishing Zaban-e Zanan. A revered crusader until the end, she avowed on her deathbed, in 1962 at the age of eighty, “I will never forgive anyone who visits my grave veiled.”46

  Along with Sadiqeh’s innovative magazine Zaban-e Zanan, other women’s publications during the early years of the twentieth century in Tehran tirelessly campaigned for reform in academia and openly condemned the practice of early marriage and enforced veiling.47 These included Danesh (Knowledge, 1910) published by Mrs. Kahal and Shokoufeh (Blossom, 1913) edited by Maryam Amid Mozayyen ol-Saltaneh. Their activist perspective was viewed as a flagrant violation of the Islamic establishment and its ordained code of morality. Riots, threats, and even arrests and imprisonment often resulted. Despite such harsh repercussions, however, women persisted in getting out the word through their feminist-oriented periodicals. Sometimes such well-intentioned publications were extremely short lived. Nameh-ye Banovan (Women’s Letter, 1920), edited by Shahnaz Azad, ceased publication after only three days, presumably for publishing the following statement in its inaugural issue:

  The shroud of superstition and traditional confinement have blocked the vision of men and women in this country.…48

  The magazine was permitted back on the scene only after it agreed to print a retraction clarifying that the word “shroud” did not in any way signify the veil. Nevertheless, Azad and her husband were harassed, arrested, and even imprisoned until the magazine was ultimately shut down.

  Another well-known periodical, Jahan-e Zanan (Women’s World, 1921), published by Afagh Parsa in Mashhad, faced such intense hostility that it was also forced to cease publication.

  While most periodicals had a short life, Alam-e Nesvan (Women’s Universe), published in Tehran from 1920 until 1934, was possibly the longest running of its kind due to its close affiliation with the Association of the American Girls School. Edited by an Iranian graduate of the school, it dealt with a variety of issues, including the value of education, health, and literacy. It also included articles about the international women’s movement.

  Throughout this period of Iranian women’s drive toward emancipation, the power of the pen had a potent effect on those who were able to obtain the groundbreaking publications. Having access to the published words of women who were so passionately committed to changing the status quo meant that readers discovered they were not alone in their quest to change their own lives.

  Another important path toward securing women’s rights was that taken by women’s societies or anjomans. These groups were engaged in deliberating and organizing around the issues that mattered most to women in the early 1900s. Among the most prominent organizations of the day were The Women’s Freedom Society (Anjoman-e Azadi-ye Zanan, 1906), the National Ladies Society (Anjoman-e Mokhadarat-e Vatan, 1910), and the Patriotic Women’s League (Jamiat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah, 1922).49

  Author Eliz Sanasarian relates in her book The Women’s Rights Movement in Iran: Mutiny, Appeasement, and Repression from 1900 to Khomeini that “since most of these organizations and societies operated in secrecy there is little information about them.” However, she does offer the following intriguing and inspiring specifics.

  The Women’s Freedom Society was created to address the second-class status of women. In order to help build women’s confidence, only females were allowed to lecture at the gatherings. Membership consisted of male and females; however, single men could only attend if they were accompanied by a female relative. Meetings were held in secret outside Tehran, and yet at one point a male who had been refused entrance informed the mullahs about the organization. A group of men soon disrupted the meeting, the members were forced to flee, and the Women’s Freedom Society was disbanded.

  The National Ladies Society was established in 1910 in order to organize women to take action against the Qajar monarchs who maintained their extravagant lifestyle by granting economic concessions to foreigners, namely the Russians and the British. Members were primarily protesting the inferior status of women, but they blamed it on the exploitation of Iran by foreign interests.

  The Patriotic Women’s League, a well-known radical organization in Tehran, had as its objectives the schooling of young girls, the education of women, the protection of orphan girls, and the establishment of hospitals for poor women.50 They published a magazine called Patriotic Women, which dealt with the issues of women’s rights, social reform, the dangers of early marriage, and nationalizing the nation’s industries. Its publisher and chief organizer was Mohtaram Eskandari.

  Patriotic Women’s League of Iran

  Members of these groundbreaking organizations shared a fundamental common objective: attaining equality for Persian women.

  WOMEN, THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION, AND TOBACCO

  The Constitutional Revolution (1906–1911) sought to compel Iran to break free from British and Russian economic exploitation, as well as to combat corruption within the Qajar monarchy.51 Those who supported this transformation insisted that foreign ownership of Iran’s resources should cease.

  Granting economic concessions to foreigners, which had begun
during the reign of Nasser al-Din Shah (1848–1896), continued with his son and successor, Mozzafar al-Din Shah (1896–1907). As foreign dominance over Iran’s resources grew, some members of the bureaucratic elite and some religious elite demanded a curb on royal authority.

  The constitutionalists were led by an alliance of enlightened clergy, members of the bureaucratic elite, and merchants who wanted to draw up an enduring document that would mandate a system of checks and balances so that Iran’s monarchs could not freely exploit the country’s resources by selling concessions to foreigners. The clergy were divided on this issue; some felt there was no need for supervision of the monarchy, while others believed it was sorely needed. This was the first time that such regulations were to be instigated, and since the Qajar monarchs were financing their lavish lifestyles by offering concessions to foreign capitalists, they obviously were opposed to these monumental changes.

  The monarchy’s granting of economic concessions to Western interests was also an issue that women took upon themselves to protest. In fact, women played a critical role in the defeat of the tobacco concession granted to Great Britain (1891–1892). (It was even rumored that women of the royal court refused to serve their husband’s water pipes!) Their participation in defeating that important economic concession, along with their overall support for Iran’s nationalist struggle, created momentum for women’s defiance against the social order.52 In order to protest the tobacco concession, support Iran’s self-sufficiency, and demonstrate their patriotism, a number of women came out of their homes for the first time. As various women’s groups took to the streets in support of the Constitutional Revolution, their actions represented an unexpected shift. The constitutionalist cause became a fortuitous opportunity for females to come out of seclusion and into the public sphere.

  As author Mangol Bayat-Philipp describes in Eliz Sanasarian’s book, women played an unforeseen role during the constitutional struggle:

  Their participation in the 1905–1911 political events seems to have been a spontaneous, free move on their part. There was neither a historical precedent nor a social tradition for such organized, politicized women’s action to inspire and guide them. Seen in this context, the role of women clearly reveals not only a new nationalist feeling that suddenly overwhelmed them and spurred them to action, but also a nascent, though strong, desire for official recognition.53

  One historical account, written by W. Morgan Shuster, an American official appointed as the treasurer general of Persia in 1911, attests to women’s dramatic participation in support of the nationalist cause:

  Out of their walled courtyards and harems marched three hundred of that weak sex.… They were clad in their plain black robes with the white nets of their veils dropped over their faces. Many held pistols under their skirts or in the folds of their sleeves. Straight to the Majlis (Parliament) they went, and, gathered there, demanded of the president that he admit them all.… the president consented to receive a delegation of them. In his reception hall they confronted him, and lest he and his colleagues should doubt their meaning, these cloistered mothers, wives and daughters exhibited threateningly their revolvers, tore aside their veils, and confessed their decision to kill their own husbands and sons, and leave behind their own dead bodies, if the deputies wavered in their duty to uphold the liberty and dignity of the Persian people and nation.54

  Although the Constitution of 1906 failed to stipulate any rights or entitlements for women, women played a significant role in its acceptance. For all their brave activism, women gained little beyond their own experience in organizing for a just cause.

  Unfortunately, the inferior status of women continued to be enshrined in the 1906 Constitution, placing women in the same category as other perceived second-rate beings who were also deprived of the right to vote, including “fraudulent, bankrupt, beggars, and all those who earn their living in a disreputable way.…”

  In 1911, Speaker of the House Shaykh Assadollah justified the misogynist decree using these words:

  The reason for excluding women is that God has not given them the capacity for taking part in politics and electing the representation of this nation. [They are] the weaker sex, and do not have the same power of judgment that men have.55

  WHAT WOULD SADIQEH SAY?

  A recent comment on my Facebook page referred to the brief biography posted beneath a photo of Sadiqeh Dowlatabadi. The reader posed this pointed question: “What would Sadiqeh Dowlatabadi say today about the treatment of women in ‘modern’ Persia?”

  As someone who was in the vanguard of women’s advocacy in early twentieth century Iran, Sadiqeh’s valued perspective would certainly be enlightening. She would likely be incensed and discouraged by the backward steps that Persian women have been forced to take during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Perhaps she would also be tremendously hopeful, and encouraged by the thousands of activists, artists, writers, educators, and others who continue to advocate for women’s rights.

  From ancient Persia through the early twentieth century, Persian women made meaningful gains but also suffered depleting losses. The egalitarian beliefs of the Zoroastrians meant that women were often on equal footing with men; women during the centuries following the Arab invasion were subjugated to religious codes that deprived them of a life outside the home; and trailblazing women like Sadiqeh, Bibi Khanum Astarabadi, and Qurrat al-‘Ayn (Tahirah) advocated for female equality, education, and political participation, despite gaining little in the way of constitutional reform. Their aspirations still resonate with those seeking freedom and equality for the women of Iran, and it is likely that Sadiqeh might advise today’s activists to keep up the fight!

  The next chapter will highlight women’s impressive progress and advancement during the stunning changes of the Pahlavi era.

  Chapter Three

  SEEDS OF CHANGE

  The Pahlavi dynasty did for Iran what Daniel Boone and the man on the moon did for America.

  Reader’s comment posted on Nina Ansary’s Facebook page

  Despite numerous bold initiatives and the unwavering dedication of a handful of progressive individuals to alter the status quo, the overriding traditional mind-set persisted in dictating the inferior status of women who “behind the veil of doors, behind the curtain indoors, left out of every social function, public or private, in which men play any part, were seldom educated, trusted, valued or respected.”1

  But dramatic changes were about to take hold. In 1925 a new frontier opened up in Iran that would prove as transformative to its citizens as U.S. trailblazing exploits were to Americans.

  In 1921, Reza Khan, a relatively unknown commander in the Persian Cossack Brigade,2 staged a coup that deposed Ahmad Shah, the last king of the Qajar Dynasty, and in 1925 led to the establishment of the Pahlavi monarchy.

  The Pahlavi era ushered in westernized education, modern dress, increase in the minimum age of marriage, women’s enhanced participation in public and professional life, the flourishing of women’s magazines, the enfranchisement of women—and more. You could say, to paraphrase the man-on-the-moon comment posted on my Facebook page, that the Pahlavi regime represented “one giant step” for womankind.

  But not all women were able to take advantage of the freedoms offered to the female population at large, and in this chapter we will learn why. We will explore the multitude of drastic changes that took place over the fifty-plus years that the Pahlavis were in power—profound and noble changes that benefited many, yet had unintended negative repercussions for others. We will also pay tribute to those Iranian women whose achievements during that era continue to inspire and motivate us all.

  EDUCATING GIRLS THE MODERN WAY

  On the eve of Reza Shah’s rise to power, Iran’s education system was manifestly inadequate, and adherence to religious codes of conduct meant that Iranian women remained second-class citizens.3

  The discovery of oil in the early twentieth century added considerably to Iran�
��s economy, enabling the inauguration of numerous socio-economic and structural improvements. The first decade of Pahlavi rule witnessed the dilution of British and Russian power; the enactment of drastic reforms, including secularization and centralization; development of education along western lines; and expansion of women’s role in society.4

  A fundamental component of the regime’s monumental task of departing from centuries of religious domination entailed secularizing and restructuring the country’s education system—a daring excursion into new territory. The most challenging and controversial aspect of creating a modern education infrastructure was the inclusion of girls, as many young females were still shrouded under the veil of ignorance. Educating girls was considered crucial to bringing women into mainstream society and to dismantling the outdated customs that Reza Shah believed inhibited and stood in the way of the nation’s progress.

  Despite reforms and the rise of new schools, illiteracy was rampant at the time of Reza Shah’s ascension to the throne. Only 50,000 students were enrolled in state-run and private institutions. In addition, the 1906 Education Act providing free and compulsory education through the sixth grade remained unenforced; state regulations for instructor qualification were practically nonexistent; higher education was significantly underdeveloped; and the antiquated maktab (religious schools) system still prevailed.

  Between 1921 and 1941, far-reaching reforms were initiated by the Ministry of Education (inaugurated in 1910). These included restrictions on the opening of new maktab, which led to a drastic reduction in the number of these religious institutions and further lessened the powers of the clergy.5 Ministry policies also resulted in a revised uniform syllabus for all public and private institutions, with standardized textbooks for boys and girls.6 The six-year elementary curriculum for boys consisted of Persian (reading, writing, composition, spelling, and grammar), religious instruction, arithmetic, civics, physical education, history, and elementary Arabic (terminated in 1930 when it was added to the secondary level). The girls had a less rigorous schedule that also included sewing and drawing.7 Furthermore, all foreign-operated schools were nationalized and required to adhere to the curriculum authorized by the Ministry.8