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Propaganda and Remembrance: Gender, Education, and “The Women's Awakening” of 1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Camron Michael Amin
Camron Michael Amin*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan-Dearborn
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In The Spring Of 1997, I Attended a Memorial Dinner for My Aunt, Dr. Na‘imeh Amin. There, one of her friends from medical school, Dr. Maryam Tusi, shared pictures of herself and my aunt from their medical school days. In 1946, they had been among the first women students admitted to the University of Tehran Medical School directly from Iranian high schools. I was fascinated by what I thought I saw in three of the pictures. One showed ten young women on the steps of the medical school, looking eager and confident. Another showed men and women marching together in a street demonstration. The third was of men and women on a country outing, huddled together to fit into the picture and seemingly unconcerned about traditional anxieties regarding mixed-gender socializing. These images of women's progress and activism could have been produced by the propaganda of the Pahlavi state during its Women's Awakening project, 1936-41. In fact, the picture of the demonstration went beyond Women's Awakening propaganda and implied a new demand for gender equality that appeared in the Iranian press in the wake of the Women's Awakening.

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Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Summer 1999 , pp. 351 - 386
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Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1999

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References

1. Here and elsewhere I have changed the names of those I interviewed to protect their privacy.

2. Camron Michael Amin, ‘“The Attentions of the Great Father': Reza Shah, “The Woman Question’ and the Iranian Press, 1890-1946” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1996).

3. Dr. Maryam Tusi, telephone interview, May 28, 1998.

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5. I found it useful to conceptualize the press as a window on Iranian society's “cultural scheme” which both shapes and is shaped by the flow of history. For more on this see Sahlins, Marshall, Islands of History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985)Google Scholar, 151-52. Space prevents a more thorough literature review here, but for more on the rise of the press as an institution in the Middle East and the press as a reflection of framing ideas and societal conventions see Goffman, Erving, Frame Analysis, 2nd ed. (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Tuchman, Gaye, Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality (New York: The Free Press, 1978)Google Scholar; Schudson, Michael, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, 1978)Google Scholar; Gitlin, Todd, The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983)Google Scholar; Roper, George, “Fāris al-Shidyāq and the Transition from Scribal to Print Culture,” in The Book in the Islamic World, ed. Atiyeh, George N. (Albany: State University of New York, 1995)Google Scholar; Douglas, Allen and Malti-Douglas, Fedawa, Arab Comic Strips: Politics of an Emerging Mass Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994)Google Scholar; and Ayalon, Ami, The Press in the Arab Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. The Pahlavi state had a fairly sophisticated view of propaganda, seeing press propaganda as just one element in a coordinated effort to influence public opinion through the media, education, and art. The regime's Sāzmān-e Āmūzesh va Parvaresh Afkār, established in 1938, was the formal realization of a coordinated propaganda scheme envisioned by intellectual supporters of the regime as far back as 1922. See, for example, “Jang bā Fasād,” Īrānshahr 1, no. 5 (25 October 1922): 91-104.

7. For an early and largely negative assessment of Reza Shah's role in Iranian history, see Makki, Hosayn, Tārīkh-e Bīst Sāleh-e Īrān , 2nd ed. (Tehran: Nashr-e Nasher, 1363).Google Scholar Appearing first serialized in the newspaper Mehr-e Īrān in the 1940s, Makki's canonization of the accusation that Reza Shah was merely a British lackey is still the focus of continuing scholarly discussion. See Zirinsky, Michael P., “Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921-1926,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 24 (November 1992): 639–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Ghani, Cyrus, Iran and the Rise of Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Rule (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a typical criticism of the regime's modernizing efforts see Banani, Amin, The Modernization of Iran: 1921-1941 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961).Google Scholar The early 1990s were a time for researchers in Iran and the United States to revisit the regime of Reza Shah with an eye toward seeing it in a broader context. Scholarly research was accompanied by a literary and cultural fascination with the figure of Reza Shah. For examples of both trends, see Reżā Shāh: Khāṭerāt-e Solaymān Behbūdī, Shams Pahlavī, ᶜAlī Īzadī, ed. Saleh, Gholamhosayn Mirza (Tehran: Tarh-e Naw, 1372)Google Scholar; Eslamiyeh, Mostafa, Reżā Khā n Maksīm (Tehran: Agah, 1372)Google Scholar; Khosrau Moᶜtazed, Fawziyeh: Ḥekāyat-e Talkhkāmī, Qeṣṣeh-e Jodāyī, 2 vols. (Tehran: Alborz, 1372)Google Scholar; Ne'matollah Qazi “Shakib,” ᶜEllal-e Soqūṭ-e Reżā Shāh, ([n.p.]: Asar, 1372); Bayat, Kaveh and Ettehadieh, Mansoureh, “The Reza Shah Period: Document Collections Recently Published in Iran,” Iranian Studies 26, nos. 3-4 (Summer/Fall 1993): 419–28.Google Scholar

8. Working in the context of the authoritarian regime of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, Elizabeth Frierson has called such state involvement “patriarchal feminism.” See Frierson, Elizabeth B., “Unimagined Communities: Women and Education in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909,” Critical Matrix 9, no. 2 (1995): 55–90.Google Scholar

9. For example, see Haleh Afshar, “Development Studies and Women in the Middle East: The Dilemmas of Research and Development,” and Moghissi, Haideh, “Women in the Resistance Movement in Iran,” in Women in the Middle East, ed. Afshar, Haleh (New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1993).Google Scholar All current attempts to uncover the history of women in Iran are indebted to the pioneering work by al-Eslami, Pari Shaykh, Zanān-e Ruznāmeh-negār va Andīshmand-e Īrān (Tehran: Zarin, 1351).Google Scholar

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12. Najmabadi, “Hazards of Modernity and Morality,” 672.

13. Amin, 335-87.

14. Paidar, Parvin, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 117.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., 115-16.

16. Ibid., 358.

17. In modern times, in all Middle Eastern Muslim cultures, opponents of various aspects of women's progress have cited Qurᵓān 4:34—espcially the phrase, “Men are the guardians/caretakers of women.” In the Iranian case, concepts of patriarchy and male guardianship can be shown to be pre-Islamic and, certainly, they are not the defining characteristics of any one culture. Furthermore, feminist re-readings of the Qurᵓān and ḥadīth have recently been published in Iran. The patriarchal construct can manifest itself in a variety of ideologies and settings. For more, see Lahiji, Shahla and Kar, Mehrangiz, Shenākht-e Hovīyat-e Zan-e Īrānī dor Gostareh-e Pīsh-e Tārīkh va Tārīkh (Tehran: Rawshangaran, 1371)Google Scholar; Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, “Stretching the Limits: A Feminist Reading of the Shari'a in Post-Khomeini Iran,” in Feminism and Islam, ed. Yamani, Mai (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 285–320Google Scholar; and Kandiyoti, Deniz “Islam and Patriarchy: A Comparative Perspective,” in Women in Middle Eastern History, ed. Keddie, Nikki and Baron, Beth (New Haven: Yale, 1991), 23–42.Google Scholar

18. Bolkosky, Sidney, “Of Parchment and Ink: Varieties of Survivor Religious Responses to the Holocaust,” Journal of Holocaust Education 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1997): 1–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Interviewing Victims Who Survived: Listening for the Silences that Strike,” Annals of Scholarship 4, no. 2 (Winter 1987): 33–51.Google Scholar

19. Bolkosky, “Interviewing Victims …,” 33.

20. As a case in point, see Sayigh, Rosemary, “Engendered Exile: Palestinian Camp Women Tell Their Lives,” Oral History, 25: 2 (Autumn 1997): 39–48Google Scholar and Fleischmann, Ellen, “Crosssing Boundaries of History: Exploring Oral History in Researching Palestinian Women in the Mandate Period,” Women's History Review 5, no. 2 (1996): 351–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. Haeri, Shahla, Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi'i Iran (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1989).Google Scholar

22. Ladjevardi, Habib, Reference Guide to the Iranian Oral History Collection (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 1988), 8–9.Google Scholar

23. Schrager, Samuel, “What is Social in Oral History?” International Journal of Oral History 4, no. 2 (June 1983): 76.Google Scholar

24. Haeri, 15. See the example of an occasionally awkward interview with the case of Mulla Amin Aqa, 167-175.

25. Habib Ladjevardi, speaking at the University of Chicago Conference on Middle Eastern History and Theory in the spring of 1997, recalled with amusement the case of an army general disavowing a transcript of his tape-recorded interview. When Ladjevardi's staff checked the recording against the transcript, they found no error. He drew laughs from the audience in recalling the general's protest, “Nemīdānam kodām aḥmaq īn chīz-hā rā gofteh, ammā mosallaman man nabūdam.”

26. For an examination of women's experiences of the Islamic Revolution and life in the Islamic Republic of Iran through oral history, see Esfandiari, Haleh, Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).Google Scholar

27. For an example of recent study driven by this concern, see K'Meyer, Tracy E., ‘“What Koinonia Was All About': The Role of Meaning in a Changing Community,” Oral History Review 24, no. 1 (Summer 1997): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28. Schrager, 95.

29. Scott, Joan Wallach, Gender and the Politics of Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).Google Scholar

30. Smith, Dorothy, The Everyday World As Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1987), 214.Google Scholar

31. Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East, ed. Göçek, Fatma Müge (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 4.Google Scholar

32. Penny Summerfield's (University of Lancaster) paper, ‘“You Were Just One of the Boys': Women's Constructions of the Disruption of Gender Divisions at Work in World War II Britain,” presented on Saturday 8 June, at the 1996 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women in Chapel Hill.

33. K'Meyer, Tracy E., ‘“It's Not Just Common Sense': A Blueprint for Teaching Oral History,” The Oral History Review 23, nos. 1-2 (Fall 1998): 51.Google Scholar This was part of a caption under a picture of two people sifting through pictures.

34. For examples, see Ostad-Malek, Fatemeh, Ḥejāb va Kashf-e Ḥejāb dor Īrān (Tehran: Moᵓassaseh-e Matbuᶜi-ye Ateᵓī, 1367)Google Scholar, Vāqeᶜeh-e Kashf-e Ḥejāb: Asnād-e Montasher Nashodeh (Tehran: Sazman-e Madarek-e Farhang va Moᵓassaseh-e Pazhuhesh va Motalaᶜat-e Farhangi, 1371)Google Scholar—hereafter, VKH—and Chehabi, Houchang, “Staging the Emperor's New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation Building Under Reza Shah,” Iranian Studies 26, nos. 3-4 (Summer/Fall 1993): 209–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35. For a useful summary of changes in women's legal status during the regime of Reza Shah, see Paidar, 109-11.

36. Sanasarian, op. cit.

37. “3 Mottaḥed al-Māl-e Vezārat-e Maᶜāref beh Shahrestānhā, 25 Āẓar 1314” in Khoshūnat va Farhang: Asnād-e Maḥramāneh-e Kashf-e Ḥejāb (1313-1322) (Tehran: Entesharat-e Sazman-e Asnad-e Melli-ye Iran, 1371), 2–4.Google Scholar Hereafter, KVF.

38. Although the subject of women's education had been considered for more than a century before the Women's Awakening, the subject of women's physical education did not receive much attention until after World War I. Partisans of the Renewal Party seem to have raised the issue first. See Sayyed Hasan Taqizadeh, “Dībācheh-e Sāl-e Dovvom-e Kāveh,” Kāveh 2, no. 1 (1 Jumada I, 1339 [11 December, 1921]): 1; Hosayn Kazemzadeh, “Mellīyat va Rūḥ-e Mellī-ye Īrān,” Īrānshahr 2, no. 2 (27 Aẓar 1302 [12 December, 1923]): 193-206; and “Az Ketāb-e Āqā-ye Solṭān Asadollāh Khān Arbābī: Favāᵓed Varzesh-e Badanī va Espor,” Setāreh-e Īrān 12, nos.: 116-17 (22-26 Day, 1305 [12-16 January 1927]): 2. Although women's magazines like Dānesh and Shokūfeh had written about women's health and hygiene since 1910, they did not talk about women's athletics or physical education. However, shortly before the Women's Awakening, some women's magazines did publish articles and other features regarding women and sports. See, for example, Azad Hamadani, “Manżūm: Varzesh,” ᶜĀlam-e Nesvān 10, no. 1 (January/February, 1932): 16. One magazine that had a considerable impact on the form of Pahlavi regime propaganda was Īrān-e Bāstān, published by the Iranian Nazi sympathizer, Sayf Azad. Īrān-e Bāstān regularly published articles on women's athletics. For example, see “Cherā Khanom-hā Bāyad Varzesh Konand?” Īrān-e Bāstān 2: 43 (19 Day 1313 [8 January, 1935]): 8, 10.

39. During the first year of the Women's Awakening a book on social etiquette by Amir Hekmat was published in serial form in Iran's main daily, Eṭṭelāᶜāt (Information). See Eṭṭelāᶜāt, 2698-2705 (7-15 Bahman 1314 [27 January 1936-4 February 1936]): 2. See also Afsaneh Najmabadi, “Hazards of Modernity and Morality,” 663-87, and idem, “Veiled Discourse—Unveiled Bodies,” Feminist Studies 19 (Fall 1993): 487–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40. Of course, it is possible that Reza Shah's regime may have considered this option as well, for a time. Discussions of women's suffrage in the press were not always censored. In one instance, possibly as a “trial balloon,” for the idea of women's suffrage in Iran, Eṭṭelāᶜāt provided positive coverage of the granting of national women's suffrage in Turkey and included the text of Prime Minister Inönü's speech. See, “Dar Aṭrāf-e Qānūn-e Ḥaqq-e Entekhāb-e Zanān-e Torkīyeh,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2374 (2 Day 1313 [23 December 1935]): 1.

41. For examples, see “Tarbīyat Pas az Vorūd-e Zan beh Ejtemāᶜ Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2710 (21 Bahman 1314/10 February 1936): 1 and “Jashn-e Dāneshsarā-ye Dokhtarān,” Īrān-e Emrūz 2, no. 2 (Ordibehesht 1319 [April/May 1940]): 31.

42. “Moᶜāvenat-e Zanān-e Vokalā-ye Parlemānt-e Englīs be-Shawharān-e Khūd,” Dānesh 23 (28 Rabiᶜ I 1329 [29 March 1911]), 7.

43. “Pazīrā'ī-ye Dīshab dar ᶜEmārat-e Majles-e Shūrā-ye Mellī,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2685 (22 Day 1314/12 January 1936): 1, 8.

44. “Malakeh-e Jāpon,” Dānesh 27 (28 Jumada I 1329 [26 June 1911]), 5-8.

45. “Tashrīf Farmā'ī-ye ᶜOlyāhażrat Malekeh va Vālāhażratayn Shāhdokht beh Dār al-Aytām-e Shāhpur,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2685, 1, and “Tashrīf Farma'ī-ye ᶜOlyahażrat Malekeh va Vālāhazratayn Shāhdokht beh Parvareshgāh-e Nawzādegān and Zāyeshgāh-e Baladī,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2692 (30 Day 1314 [20 January 1936]): 1, 8.

46. “Zanān-e Havāpaymā,” ᶜĀlam-e Nesvān 10, no. 2 (March 1930): 56.

47. “Havāpaymā'I,” Irān-e Emruz 2, no. 1 (Farvardin 1319 [March/April 1940]): 36-37. The name of one of the pilots was Ina Aushid; see “Dar Forudgāh-e Dawshān Tepeh: Parvāz-e Nokhostln Bānu-ye Khalabān,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 4131 (14 Esfand 1318 [4 March 1940]):l. Another highly educated woman named Tahereh Dimyad entered the flight school earlier that year and got her picture in the paper for it; see “Yak Dūshīzeh-e Dāneshmand Dāvṭalab-e Fann-e Khalabānī,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 4062 (10 Day 1318 [31 December 1939]): 1.

48. “Taraqqī va Pīshraft-e Bozorg-e Bānovān dar Donyā-ye Motamadden,” Irān-e Bāstān 3, no. 4 (9 July 1935): 14.

49. Irān-e Emrūz 3, no. 2 (Ordibehesht 1320 [April/May 1941]): 22.

50. Īrān-e Emrūz 1: 2/3 (Ordibehesht/Khordād 1318 [April-June 1939]): 22-3, Īrān-e Emrūz 1, nos. 7/8 (Mehr/Aban 1318 [September-November 1939]): 12, Īrān-e Emrūz 2, no. 4 (Tīr 1319 [June/July 1940]): 6-8, and back cover, Īrān-e Emrūz 2: 8 (Aban, 1319 [October/November 1940]): 5, and Īrān-e Emrūz 3, no. 2 (Ordibehesht 1320 [April/May 1941]): 18. Scouting (for boys and girls) had been introduced to Iran by American missionaries. See Zirinsky, Michael P., “A Panacea for the Ills of the Country: American Presbyterian Education in Inter-War Iran,” Iranian Studies 26, nos. 1-2 (Winter/Spring 1993): 119–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51. “Sūs-e Akhlāq!?” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2273 (3 Day 1313 [23 December 1934]): 2.

52. “Sū-e Estefādeh az Vejāhat barāye Zan Badbakhtī Ast,” Kūshesh 3888 (15 Day 1317 [4 January 1939]), 1. The “dangerous woman” in this story was German. Indeed, stories about European or American women were often used as “object lessons” of how not to behave. At the same time, European and American images of “glamorous beauty” reached unprecedented attention in the Iranian press during the 1930s, sending a decidedly mixed message about the “European example” for modem Iranian womanhood.

53. KVF, Document 3, 4.

54. VKH, Document 30.

55. KVF, Document 3.

56. Shirazi, Mohammad Mirza Saleh, Majmūᶜeh-e Safarnāmeh-hā-ye Mīrzā Ṣāleḥ Shīrāzi* ed. Ṣāleḥ, Gholamhosayn Mīrzā (Tehran: Nashr-e Tarikh-e ran, 1364), 316.Google Scholar Shirazi's favorable impression of the education of English women was anticipated by the eighteenth-century Iranian traveler to England, Eᶜtesam al-Din, who was in England from 1766-69. See Tavakoli-Targhi, , “Imagining Western Women: Occidentalism and Euro-eroticism,” Radical America 24 (July—September 1990 [1993]): 79.Google Scholar

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58. The legacy of this institution, which laid the foundations for what was to become the University of Tehran, is complex. The translation bureau and printing press associated with the Dar al-Fonun were of critical importance to the process of adapting European modernity to Iranian needs and to the rise of the periodical press in Iran. However, as early as 1859 the administrators of the Dar al-Fonun were hard pressed to find funds for the school's operating expenses. See Ekhtiar, Maryam Dorreh, “The Dār al-Funūn: Educational Reform and Cultural Development in Qajar Iran,” (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1994): 133–35.Google Scholar

59. Menashri 77-78.

60. Matthee, Rudi, “Transforming Dangerous Nomads into Useful Artisans, Technicians, Agriculturalists: Education in the Reza Shah Period,” Iranian Studies 26, nos. 3-4 (Summer/Fall 1993): 315–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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62. Paidar, 67-70.

63. Afsaneh Najmabadi, “Zanhā-yi Millat,” 65-71.

64. Gholamᶜali Sarmad, Eᶜẓām-e Mohaṣṣal beh Khārej az Keshvar dar Dawreh-e Qājār (Tehran: Chap va Nashr-e Bonyad, 1372 [1993/4]), 109.Google Scholar Because of its name, dār al-moᶜallemāt, this college has been described as a teacher's training college. However, Sarmad's information on the intent of the “place of women's training” or dār al-moᶜallamāt, raises the question whether it was a teacher's college at all, at least in its initial incarnation. Women were being “trained” (hence the term moᶜallam, in Arabic muᶜallam), but were not themselves in the business of training others as teachers (moᶜallem, in Arabic muᶜallim). This would be consistent with the use of the term in other contexts; for example, Ottoman Sultan Mahmut IFs new military unit was called “The Victorious Trained Soldiers of Muhammad” (muallem asakir-i mansure-i Muḥammadiye). See Shaw, Stanford J. and Shaw, Ezel Kural, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 22–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

65. Menashri, 130.

66. See Naqd va Sayyāhāt: Majmūᶜeh-ye Maqālāt va Taqrīrāt Doktor Fāṭemeh Sayyāḥ'’ ed. Golbon, Mohammad (Tehran: Tus, 1354).Google Scholar

67. See Mahdokht Sanᶜati, “Hargaz Namīrad Ānkeh Zendeh Shod beh ‘Eshq … ,” Nīmeh-e Dīgar 17 (Winter, 1371 [1992/3]): 64-76.

68. Menashri, 118.

69. Ibid., 110.

70. All of the statistics in this paragraph that arenot attributed to another source are drawn from the Ministry of Culture, Sālnāmeh va Āmār-e Vezārat-e Farhang-e Dawlat-e Shāhanshāhī-ye Īrān, 1322/23, 1323/24, 1324/25, 1325/26 va 1326/27, Part 2 (Tehran: Sherekat-e Sahami-ye Chap, 1327), 140–41.Google Scholar

71. Matthee, 315.

72. Sālnāmeh va Āmār, 1322/1327, part 2: 333, 351.

73. VKH, Documents 61, 62, 69, 70.

74. Sālnāmeh va Āmār, 1322-1327 , part 1, 507-17.

75. It is interesting to note that Dr. Tusi recalls nine students, the picture shows ten women, and official records indicate that there were seven.

76. Mehrangiz Dowlatshahi, interviewed by Shahrokh Meskoob, 8 May 1984, Paris, France. Iranian Oral History Project, Harvard University, tape no. 1, p. 3 of transcript.

77. Nuri, Fazlollah, “Maṭbūᶜ dar Āstāneh-e Moqaddaseh-e Ḥażrat-e ᶜAbd al-ᶜAẓīm (Salām Allāh ᶜalayhi wa ᶜalā Ābā'ih al-Kerām) barā-ye Entebāh va Rafᶜ-e Eshtebāh az Barādarān-e Dīnī” in Rasāyel, Eᶜlāmīyeh-hā, Maktūbāt, va Rūznāmeh-e Shaykh-e Shahīd Fażlollāh Nūrī, vol. 1, edited by Mohammad Torkaman (Tehran: Moᵓassasehye Khadamat-e Farhangi-ye Rasa, 1362), 262.Google Scholar

78. Delrish, Bashri, Zan dar Dawreh-e Qājār (Tehran: Sazman-e Tablighat-e Islami, 1375), 126–28.Google Scholar She notes that the Qajar monarch, Naser al-Din Shah (d. 1896), used to provide annual financial assistance to both the Presbyterian girls’ school and the French one run by the sisters of St. Vincent de Paul.

79. See, for example, “Maktūb-e yekī az dokhtarhā-ye tarbīyat shodeh-e Yorūp, qābel-e tavajjoh-e khānomhā-ye mohtaram,” Dānesh 27 (28 Jumādā I 1329 [27 May 1911]), 2-3.

80. Paidar, 69.

81. Delrish, 135-39.

82. “Yahudān-e Ommat-e Moḥammad Ṣalᶜam,” Daᶜvat al-Eslām 22 (16 Rajab 1325 [25 August 1907]): 1. The article compared Shaykh Nuri to the “hypocrites” and to Jews who had opposed the Prophet while he struggled to establish the Medinan Muslim community.

83. “Noṭq-e Ḥażrat-e Āyatollāhzādeh Khāleṣī,” Setāreh-ye Īrān 9, no.27 (21 Mizān, 1302 [7 October, 1923]): 1.

84. Matthee, 327.

85. Zirinsky, Michael P., “Render unto Caesar the Things Which Are Caesar's: American Presbyterian Educators and Reza Shah,” Iranian Studies 26, nos. 3-4 (Summer/Fall 1993): 337-40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

86. Michael P. Zirinsky, “A Panacea,” 124-25 and “Presbyterian Missionaries and American Relations with Pahlavi Iran,” The Iranian Journal of International Affairs 1, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 78, 85.Google Scholar

87. The owner of the publishing license was Navaveh Safavi. In 1929, the only member of the board of directors listed was Mrs. Boyce, the principal of the American Girls’ School. In 1932, two Iranian women, Taybeh Khanom Mir Damadi and Ashraf Khanom Nabavi, and two Americans, Mrs. Boyce and Miss Doolittle, were listed as directors. See ᶜĀlam-e Nesvān 9, no. 5 (September, 1929) and 12, no. 5 (September, 1935): 201 and 193, respectively.

88. Ibid., inside cover. In 1929, the non-Iranian representatives were Mrs. Ziegler in Molayer, Miss Eden in Yazd and Mr. Miller in Mashhad. In 1932, the non-Iranian representatives were Mrs. Ziegler in Molayer, Miss Eden in Yazd, and Mrs. Elder in Kermanshah.

89. Michael P. Zirinsky, “Render unto Caesar … ,” 347.

90. Ibid., 349.

91. Ibid., 356.

92. For example, the novelist and journalist, Mohammad Masᶜud, was sent to Belgium at government expense to study journalism in 1935. However, when he wrote an article for a Belgian newspaper on the subject of communism, he was warned by Minister of Education ᶜAli Akbar Hekmat, via the Iranian embassy, not to write such articles in the future. See Shifteh, Nasr Allah, Zendegī-nāmeh va Mobārazāt-e Seyāsi-ye Moḥammad Masᶜūd, Modīr-e Ruznāmeh-e Mard-e Emrūz (Tehran: Aftab-e Haqiqat, 1363), 373–74.Google Scholar

93. Moloud Khanlary. interview by Ziya Sedghi, 7 March 1984, Paris, France. Iranian Oral History Project, Harvard University, tape 1, p. 1 of transcript.

94. Ozma Adi Naficy, interview by Habib Ladjevardi, 10 February 1984, Cambridge, Mass. Iranian Oral History Project, Harvard University, p. 2 of transcript.

95. Dowlatshahi, tape no. 1, p. 14 of transcript.

96. Ibid.

97. Ibid. p. 15 of transcript.

98. Farman-Farmian, Sattareh, Daughter of Persia (New York: Anchor Books, 1992), 50–51.Google Scholar

99. Ibid., 59.

100. Ibid.

101. Simin Daneshvar in an interview with Naser Hariri published in Honar va Adabīyā t: Goft va Shonud bā Parvīz Nā tel Khā nlarī va Sīmīn Dā neshvar (Babol, Iran: Ketabsara-ye Babol, 1366), 8.Google Scholar

102. Ibid., 15.

103. Daneshvar, Simin, Savushun: A Novel About Modern Iran, translated by Ghanoonparvar, M. R. (Washington D.C.; Mage, 1990), 200–203.Google Scholar

104. Jamileh Farrokh, “Dar Kolej-e Āmrīkā'ī,” Shafaq-e Sorkh 528 (14 June 1926), 3.

105. “Noṭq-e Ḥażrat-e Āyatollāhzādeh Khāleṣī,” Setāreh-e Īrān 9, no. 23 (17 September 1923): 2.

106. Farrokh, 2.

107. Dowlatshahi, tape 1, p. 23 of transcript and tape 2, p. 8 of transcript.

108. “Dr. Said Rafiq,” husband of Dr. Tusi, telephone interview with the author, 28 May 1998.

109. Farman Farmaian, 88.

110. For examples, see “Parastārān-e Englīs,” Dānesh 20 (29 Safar 1329): 3; Ziya al-Din Nadim Bashi, “Nesvān va Khadamāt-e ᶜOmūmī,” Shokūfeh 1, no. 21 (16 Safar 1332): 1; “Dār al-Moᶜallamāt” Setāreh-e Irān 6, no. 27 (23 September 1923): 3; “Polīs-e Zanāneh dar Ālmān” Shafaq-e Sorkh 501 (7 May 1926): 4; and ‘Effat Samiᶜian “Hojūm-e Zanān dar ᶜĀlam-e Eqteṣād,” ᶜĀlam-e Nesvān 9, no. 5 (September 1929): 201-207.

111. See Menashri, 109.

112. A traditional gymnasium and typical male preserve.

113. Hosayn ᶜAli, “Moᶜammā-ye Ezdevāj va Taḥsīlāt-e ᶜAlīyeh,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2263 (25 Mordad 1313 [15 August 1934]): 2.

114. “Dar Kanūn-e Bānovān: Konferāns-e Khānom-e Tarbīyat, part 3,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2630 (14 Aban 1314 [6 November 1935]): 2.

115. Sālnāmeh va Āmār 1315/16 and 1316/17, part 2 (Tehran: Sherkat-e Sahamiye Chap, 1317 [1938/9]), 272-73.

116. In addition to the aforementioned example of women pilots, see Eṭṭelāᶜāt 4062 (10 Day 1318 [31 December 1939]): 1; Shīrkhwārgāh-e Tajrīs. “Īrān-e Emrūz 3, no. 4 (Tir 1320 [June/July 1941]): 23-25; “Komīsīyun-e Namāyesh-Honarestān-e Honarpīshagī,” Īrān-e Emrūz 1, no. 1 (Farvardin 1318 [March/April 1939]): 51-2; “Edāreh-e Musīqī-ye Keshvar,” Irān-e Emrūz 2 no. 9 (Aẓar 1319 [November/December 1940]): 2-8; Īrān-e Emrūz 3 no. 5 (Mordad 1320 [July/August 1941]): 12-14; Īrān-e Emrūz 3, no. 2 (Ordibehesht 1320 [April/May 1941]): 22; and “Bānovān dar Zendagānī-ye ᶜAmalī—Āmukhtan-e Fann-e Telegrāf,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2704 (14 Bahman 1314 [3 February 1936]): 1.

117. Sālnāmeh va Āmār 1315/16 and 1316/17, part 2, 2, 4.

118. Ibid., 3, 5.

119. Ibid.

120. Sālnāmeh va Āmār 1319/2, 1320/21 va 1321/22, part 2 (Tehran: Sherekat-e Sahami-ye Chap, 1322), 2.Google Scholar

121. Sālnāmeh va Āmār, 1322-27, part 2, 1.

122. Ibid., 3.

123. Badry Kamrooz-Atabai, inteview by Habib Ladjevardi, 11 April 1984, Cambridge, Mass. Iranian Oral History Project, tape 1, p. 1 of transcript.

124. Moloud Khanlary, tape 1, p. 1 of transcript.

125. Mehrangiz Dowlatshahi, tape 2, pp. 8-14 of transcript.

126. Sālnāmeh-e Dāneshsarā-ye ᶜĀlī 1315/16 va 1316/17 (Tehran: Chapkhaneh-e Rawshnaᵓi, 1317), 171–202.Google Scholar

127. Ibid., 182. There had been no women members the previous academic year (1936-37).

128. Dowlatshahi, tape 1, p. 22 of transcript.

129. “Tarbīyat Pas az Vorūd-e Zan beh Ejtemāᶜ,” Eṭṭelāᶜāt 2710, 1.

130. Fatemeh Sayyah, “Masᵓaleh-e Nobūgh dar Nazd-e Zanhā,” Īrān-e Emrūz 2, no. 8 (Aban 1319 [October/November 1940]): 32.

131. Ibid.

132. Daneshvar interview in Honar va Adabīyāt, 16. The phrase she used was “sīlīhā-ye rūzgār.”

133. Kamrooz-Atabai, 2.

134. Dowlatshahi, tape 1, p. 23 of the transcript.

135. Before finally collapsing in early 1942, the Ministry of Public Enlightenment's chief organ, Īrān-e Emrūz, abruptly shifted from celebrating the achievements of the Pahlavi regime to celebrating the parliament. See, for example, “Jashn-e Sī va Sheshomīn-e Sāl-e Mashrutīyat-e Īrān.” Īrān-e Emrūz 3, nos. 5 and 6 (Mordad/Shahrivar 1320 [July-September 1941]): 32-3. Though the parliament was not able to sustain, as an institution, anywhere near the propaganda dominance that Reza Shah had enjoyed, it nonetheless featured, in the pages of Īrān-e Emrūz similar celebrations of women's education and professional achievement.

136. Sālnāmeh va Āmār, 1322-1328, part 2, 143-44.

137. See, for example,“Farhang va Ḥayāt-e Ma'navī,” Mardom, (3 Ordibehesht 1322 [23 April 1943]): 1.

138. See, for example, M, “Dūshandeh-e Shīr: Ānhāᵓī Keh Sarbār-e Jāmeᶜeh Khwāhand Shod?” Kūshesh, (8 Mehr 1320 [29 September 1941]): 2 and M., “Khānomhā va Khadamāt-e Edārī,” Kūshesh, (26 Aban 1320 [16 November 1941]): 1 and 2.

139. Farangis Mazandarani, “Zan va Zendegānī,” Eqdām, (23 Ordibehesht 1321 [12 May 1942]): 3. The editor's note was, “Men can also respond to women.” Soon, a male worker at the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone did respond. He cited the Qurᵓanic injunction that men were guardians over women (Qurᵓān, 4: 34) to justify the way of things, but conceded that men needed to provide better examples. The editor's note was, “Religion is the best guide for humanity and the refiner of morals.” See Sayyed Morteza ᶜAliqoli, “Zan va Zendagānī,” Eqdām, 28 (Ordibehesht 1321 [17 May 1942]): 3.

140. Afsaneh Najmabadi, introduction to Astarabadi, Bibi Khanom, Maᶜāyeb al-Rejāl, edited, annotated and introduced by Najmabadi, Afsaneh (Chicago: Midland Press, 1992), 15–23.Google Scholar

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