Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran

by Nina Ansary

  25H. Javadi and W. Floor, trans., The Education of Women and the Vices of Men: Two Qajar Tracts (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2010), 64–65.

  26Ibid.

  27Ibid., 134.

  28A. Amanat, ed., Taj Al-Saltaneh: Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess (Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 2003), 201.

  29Ibid., 201–202.

  30Clara Rice Colliver, Persian Women and Their Ways (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1923), 94.

  31Ibid., 90–95.

  32Ibid., 92.

  33Ibid., 149.

  34G. Nashat, Women and Revolution in Iran (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983), 23; E. Sanasarian, “Characteristics of the Women’s Movement in Iran,” in Women and Fluid Identities: Strategic and Practical Pathways Selected by Women, ed. A. Fathi (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985), 86–105.

  35Sanasarian, “Characteristics of the Women’s Movement in Iran,” 19.

  36Alliance Israélite Universelle was the first nationwide Jewish organization through which a number of Jewish schools were founded in Iran. Established in Paris in 1850, the Alliance aimed at unification of Jews. From 1898–1920, schools were founded in Tehran and in the cities of Hamada, Isfahan, and Shiraz. From 1921-1941 (the Reza Shah Pahlavi period), the Iranian community increased its involvement in the Alliance schools.

  37Ibid.

  38The Babi movement, which was violently put down during the mid-1850s, led to the founding of the Baha’i faith, which views the religion of the Bab as its predecessor. The Baha’i religion—a monotheistic religion—is an outgrowth of Shiism, and emphasizes the unity of God in all world religions as well as the spiritual unity of men and women. The Baha’i religion grew out of the nineteenth-century messianic Shi’ite movement in Iran known as the Babi movement. Many conservative Shiites consider Baha’is as apostates, as they broke away from Shiite Islam and as a result were persecuted for their beliefs and consequently lacked legal status. An intrinsic component of this belief system was its egalitarian premise and the pursuit of knowledge for all regardless of gender. The abatement of restrictions towards this sect in the latter part of the nineteenth century led to the establishment of a number of semi-official Baha’i schools for girls, including the well-known Tarbiyyat School, cited from E. Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

  39Sanasarian, “Characteristics of the Women’s Movement,” 39.

  40J. Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906-1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 10; V. Martin, Islam and Modernism: the Iranian Revolution of 1906 (London: I. B. Tauris, 1989), 3.

  41R. Arasteh, Education and Social Awakening in Iran (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1962), 180.

  42The term Mullah is defined by Oxford Dictionary as “A Muslim learned in Islamic theology and sacred law.”

  43The International Institute of Social History, http://socialhistory.org/en/collections/s%C3%A9digh%C3%A9-dolatabadi-collection.

  44J. Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906–1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), 187.

  45The International Institute of Social History, http://socialhistory.org/en/collections/s%C3%A9digh%C3%A9-dolatabadi-collection.

  46Ibid.

  47Sanasarian, The Women’s Right Movement, 32.

  48Ibid., 33–34.

  49Sanasarian, The Women’s Right Movement, , 35–36.; P. Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 95–97.

  50Sanasarian, The Women’s Right Movement, 35–36.

  51The Constitutional Revolution was the first time the clerical establishment in Iran became divided. Some wanted to curb royal authority and have it be subject to a system of checks and balances, while others did not deem this necessary. Therefore, the only way to save Iran from government corruption and foreign manipulation was to decree and implement written codes of law—a sentiment leading to the Constitutional Revolution (Enqelab-e-Mashruteh) (1906–1911). Mozzafar al-Din Shah was therefore forced to issue the decree for a constitution and the creation of an elected parliament (Majlis), which not only limited royal power but also led to the establishment of a parliamentary system in Iran.

  52M. Bayat-Philip, “Women and Revolution in Iran, 1905–1911,” in Women in the Muslim World, eds. L. Beck, and N. Keddie (Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1978), 295–308; Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906–1911.

  53Sanasarian, Women’s Rights Movement, 22.

  54Ibid., 20–35.

  55Bayat-Philip, “Women and Revolution,” 301.

  CHAPTER Three

  1M. Shuster, The Strangling of Persia (New York: The Century Co., 1912), 193.

  2The Cossack Brigade was a cavalry unit in the Persian army established in 1879 on the model of Cossack units in the Russian army. The formation of the Cossack Brigade was part of a larger process in which the Persian government, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, engaged various European soldiers to train units of the Persian armed forces, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/search/keywords:Cossack%20Brigade.

  3S. Cronin, ed., The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society Under Riza Shah, 1921– 1941 (London and New York: Routledge, 2003).

  4G. Lenczowski, ed., Iran Under the Pahlavis (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1978); Arasteh, Man and Society in Iran, 104–105.

  5R. Mathee, “Transforming Dangerous Nomads into Useful Artisans, Technicians, and Agriculturalists: Education in the Reza Shah Period,” in The Making of Modern Iran, ed. S. Cronin, 133.

  6I. Sadiq, Modern Persia and Her Educational System (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931), 53; A. Banani, The Modernization of Iran, 1921– 1941 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1961), 94–95.

  7Sadiq, Modern Persia, 57–58

  8Mathee, “Transforming Dangerous Nomads,” 126–133.

  9Ibid., 126–133

  10D. Menashri, Education and the Making of Modern Iran (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992), 125–130.

  11M. R. Pahlavi, Mission for My Country (London: Hutchison & Co., 1960), 231; Noah Feldman, After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004), 104.

  12R .F. Woodsmall, Muslim Women Enter a New World (New York: Round Table Press, 1936), 47.

  13Menashri, Education and the Making of Modern Iran, 108.

  14H. E. Chehabi, “The Banning of the Veil and Its Consequences,” in The Making of Modern Iran, ed. S. Cronin, 198.

  15A. Pahlavi, Faces in a Mirror: Memoirs from Exile (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980), 24–25.

  16Ibid.

  17Chehabi, “Banning of the Veil,” 202; C. M. Amin, The Making of the Modern Iranian Woman: Gender, State Policy, and Popular Culture, 1865–1946 (Tallahassee: University Press of Florida, 2002), 81.

  18L. P. Elwell-Sutton, Modern Iran (London: Routledge, 1944), 139; J. S Szyliowicz, Education and Modernization in the Middle East (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1973), 177.

  19Banani, Modernization of Iran, 95.

  20Sadiq, Modern Persia, 115–116.

  21Menashri, Education and the Making of Modern Iran, 109.

  22S. Mahdavi, “Reza Shah Pahlavi and Women,” in Making of Modern Iran, ed. Cronin, 184; Amin, Making of the Modern Iranian Woman, 129.

  23N. R. Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), 102.

  24Mahdavi, “Reza Shah Pahlavi,” 189; Menashri, Education and the Making of Modern Iran, 90, 100.

  25Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 47.

  26Sanasarian, Women’s Rights Movement, 70; A. Tabari, “The Enigma of the Veiled Iranian Woman,” (MERIP Report, February 1982), 24.

  27Sanasarian, Women’s Rights Movement, 70; Tabari,” E
nigma of Veiled Iranian Woman,” 24.

  28J. Rostami-Kolayi, “Expanding Agendas for the New Iranian Woman,” in Making of Modern Iran, ed. S. Cronin, 157–159.

  29Ibid., 169.

  30Sanasarian, Women’s Rights Movement.

  31Ibid., 67–71.

  32Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 255.

  33The Tudeh Party of Iran was formed in September 1941 to continue the work of the banned Communist Party of Iran, http://www.iranchamber.com/history/tudeh/tudeh_party01.php.

  34Lenczowski, ed., Iran Under Pahlavis; S. Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008); A.M. Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After (London and New York: Pearson Education Limited, 2003); E. Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

  35British and Soviet troops had occupied Iran during World War II, as this made it possible to transport much-needed war material to the USSR. The occupation was a strategic move, and one that eventually played a part in the defeat of Germany. However, this dual occupation proved disastrous for Iran, as it disrupted the Iranian government’s ability to exercise effective authority. For example, Iran was still primarily agricultural at that time, and the Russians who had occupied the northern provinces freely exploited the agricultural and industrial resources in that region. To make matters worse, government revenue fell significantly due to the state’s inability to collect taxes in the occupied northern region, and agricultural output decreased due to a combination of bad weather and disruption caused by Soviet occupation.

  36Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 79–81.

  37The Lend-Lease Act, a proposed plan passed on March 11, 1941, allowed the United States to provide needed supplies to any country whose security was vital to its defense. For a detailed description of this plan, consult B. Rubin, Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience in Iran (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980). In 1949, President Truman proposed a worldwide policy of economic aid and technical assistance for underprivileged nations, which came to be known as the Point Four Program. For a more concise documentation refer to W.E. Warne, Mission for Peace: Point 4 in Iraq (Bethesda, MD: Ibex, 1999).

  38Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 89, 138, 181. The history of development planning in Iran dates back to the mid-1920s, when Reza Shah’s government formulated its industrialization policy, mainly with contributions from the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. (AIOC). The plan was ambiguous, with narrow focus on the public sector and inadequate enumeration of concrete policy objectives. Development projects came to a standstill with the Allied invasion and occupation of Iran (1941) and the subsequent abdication of Reza Shah. “Actual” planning in Iran began in 1948, when the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi began to rebuild and expand its industries through the initiation of two consecutive seven-year cycles. For a more detailed summary, consult R. Looney, “Origins of Pre-Revolutionary Development Strategy,” Middle Eastern Studies 22, no. 1 (1986): 104–119 and F. Daftary, “Development Planning in Iran: A Historical Survey,” Iranian Studies 6, no. 4: 176–228.

  39Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 181.

  40F. Bostick and G. Jones, Planning and Power in Iran: Ebtehaj and Economic Development Under the Shah (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 1987), 122, 143; G. Baldwin, Planning and Development in Iran (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1967), viii, 50; Third National Development Plan (1962–1968), Plan Organization (Tehran: Office Press Inc.).

  41Fourth National Development Plan (1968–1972), Plan Organization (Tehran: Office Press Inc.), 263.

  42Ibid., 262–265.

  43Fifth National Development Plan (1973–1978), Plan Organization (Tehran: Office Press Inc.), 199–215.

  44Fourth National Development Plan, 259.

  45Menashri, Education and the Making of Modern Iran, 164.

  46F. Sabahi, “The Literacy Corps in Pahlavi Iran (1963–1979): Political, Social, and Literary Implications.” (Ph.D. diss. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, 2002), 220–222; Menashri, Education and the Making of Modern Iran, 173; Arasteh, Education and Social Awakening in Iran, 191.

  47Arasteh, Education and Social Awakening in Iran, 70.

  48Menashri, Education and the Making of Modern Iran, 139.

  49S. Hamadhaidari, “Education During the Reign of the Pahlavi Dynasty (1941–1979),” Teaching in Higher Education 13, no. 1 (Feb. 2008): 17–28.

  50Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 262.

  51A. Doerr, “An Assessment of Educational Development: The Case Study of Pahlavi University in Iran,” The Middle East Journal, no. 3: 200–213.

  52Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 236.

  53Ibid., 232.

  54F. R. Woodsmall, Women and the New East (Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1960), 84.

  55M. R. Pahlavi, The White Revolution of Iran (Teheran: The Imperial Pahlavi Library, Keyhan Press, May 1967), 109.

  56Pahlavi, White Revolution, 22.

  57Ibid., 101.

  58Ibid., 99.

  59Ibid., 103–125; K. Watson,. “The Shah’s White Revolution: Education and Reform in Iran,” Comparative Education 12, no. 1: 23–36.

  60Sabahi, “Literacy Corps,” 212–224; C. Prigmore, Social Work in Iran Since the White Revolution (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1976), 24–37.

  61Discrepancies found in researching the mandate for coeducational facilities during this period prompted confirmation with Abdolmajid Majidi, who served as Minister of State for Agricultural and Consumer Affairs (1968), Minister of Labor (1969–1972), and Minister of State and Director of the Plan and Budget Organization (1972–1977). In an interview conducted in Sausalito, California, on January 8, 2013, Dr. Majidi confirmed that in the aftermath of the White Revolution and the mandate for free and compulsory education, it simply became economically more feasible to have an integrated school system.

  62Sabahi, “Literacy Corps,” 177–195.

  63Economic Report of the Central Bank of Teheran, 1978.

  64P. J. Higgins and P. Shoar-Ghaffari, “Sex-Role Socialization in Iranian Textbooks,” NWSA Journal 3, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 213–232.

  65D. Coleman, Emotional Intelligence (New York and London: Bantam Books, 2005), 193–194.

  66J. W. Santrock, Adolescence, 14th edition (New York: McGraw Hill, 2010), 128–161; C. P. Edwards, Promoting Social and Moral Development in Young Children (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1986).

  67G. Handel, S. E. Cahill, and F. Elkin, Children and Society: The Sociology of Children and Childhood Socialization (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 131–182.

  68E. Durkheim, Les Regles de la Monde Sociologique (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1992), 95; E. Durkheim, Education et Sociologie (Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan, 1922), 51; E. Durkheim, Moral Education (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc., 2002), 223–251.

  69A. Kroska, “Conceptualizing and Measuring Ideology as an Identity,” in Gender and Society 14, no. 3 (June 2000): 368–394; G. Ritzer and J. M. Ryan, eds., The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology (United States and England: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 249.

  70S. N. Davis, “Gender Ideology: Components, Predictions and Consequences,” Annual Review of Sociology 35 (August 2009): 87–105; G. Kaufman, “Do Gender Role Attitudes Matter? Family Formation and Dissolution Among Traditional and Egalitarian Men and Women,” Journal of Family Issues 21, no. 1 (January 2000): 128–144; J. E. Cameron and R. L. Lalonde, “Social Identification and Gender Related Ideology in Men and Women,” British Journal of Social Psychology 40, no. 1 (March 2001): 59–77; L. Kramer, The Sociology of Gender: A Brief Introduction (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2011.

  71Farsi Grade 1 textbook (Tehran: Ministry of Education, 1974), 4, 42, 52.

  72Ibid., 51, 58, 59, 81.

  73Ibid., 73, 74.

  74Ibid., 47; Farsi Grade 2 textbook (Tehran: Ministry of Education, 1974), 1, 72.
>
  75Farsi Grade 5 textbook (Tehran: Ministry of Education, 1974), 18.

  76Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 236.

  77E. Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), 434.

  78A. Pahlavi, Faces in the Mirror: Memoirs from Exile (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980), 155–156.

  79Ibid., 155–157.

  80Sanasarian, Women’s Rights Movement, 73–79; Woodsmall, Women and New East, 80–83; S. Vakili, Women and Politics in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Action and Reaction (London and New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011), 35.

  81Kermit Roosevelt Jr., Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979).

  82History: This Day in History, “CIA-Assisted Coup Overthrows Government of Iran,” http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-coup-overthrows-government-of-iran.

  83Pahlavi, Mission for Country, 138–139; J. Gaslorowski and M. Byrne, Mohammad Mossadegh and the 1953 Coup in Iran (Syracuse and New York: Syracuse University Press, 2004).

  CHAPTER Four

  1“Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,” The Biography.com website, accessed Mar 03 2015. http://www.biography.com/people/ayatollah-ruhollah-khomeini-13680544.

  2S. Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran: Clergy-State Relations in the Pahlavi Period (New York: State University of New York Press, 1980).

  3Ibid. (Citation from Velayet-e-Faqih, a series of lectures published as a book, became a handbook for revolution.) (NOTE: In his book The Reign of the Ayatollahs, historian Shaul Bakhash states that the Iranian revolution derived specifically from Iranian conditions and Iranian historical and religious tradition.)

  4S. Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 1990).

  5Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1921.

  6Shirin Ebadi, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution (New York: Random House, 2006), 33–34.

  7Pahlavi, Faces in a Mirror, 25–26.