Patriotic Womanhood: The Culture of Feminism in Modern Iran, 1900–19411

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 2 Nijat, No. 22, 19 Ramadan 1327/5 October 1909, p. 4. 3 For other studies of women in the constitutional period, see Mangol Bayat-Philipp, ‘Women and Revolution in Iran, 1905–11’, in Lois Beck and Nikki Keddie (eds), Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978); Janet Afary, ‘On the Origins of Feminism in Early 20th-Century Iran’, Journal of Women's History, 1 (Fall 1989): 65–87; Eliz Sanasarian, The Women's Rights Movement in Iran (New York: Praeger, 1982); Afsaneh Najmabadi, ‘Zanha-yi Millat: Women or Wives of the Nation?’ Iranian Studies, 26, nos. 1–2 (1993): 51–71; Huma Natiq, ‘Nigahi bih barkhi nivishtiha va mubarizat-i zanan dar dawran-i mashrutiyat’, Kitab-i Jum'a 30 (1979): 45–54; Abdul Husayn Nahid, Zanan-i Iran dar junbish-i mashrutiyat (Saarbrucken: Nuvid, 1989). For an excellent article on women under the Qajars, see Mansoureh Ettehadieh, ‘Zan dar jami'ah-i qajar’, Kilk, 55–56 (Fall 1373/1994): 27–50. 4 This point has been eloquently argued and supported in a recent study by Camron Amin, The Making of the Modern Iranian Women: Gender, State Policy, and Popular Culture, 1865–1946 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2002). 5 Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 21. 6 Habl al-Matin, Tehran, 1 Shavval 1325/8 November 1907, p. 1. 7 For a discussion of women's activism during the constitutional revolution, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, ‘Zanha-yi millat: Women or Wives of the Nation’, Iranian Studies 26, nos. 1–2 (Winter-Spring 1993):51–71. Also, Janet Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996). 8 Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 6. For a critique of feminism (’aqayid-i feministi) in a Persian journal, see Payk-i Sa'adat-i Nisvan, Nos. 4–5 (May–July, 1928), p. 98. 9 Danish, No. 1, 10 Ramadan 1328/1910, p. 2. Several editions of Danish and Shikufah, another women's journal that began publication in 1912, have been edited in Iran. See Shikufah bih Inzimam-i Danish: Nakhustin Nashriyah'hayah Zanan-i Iran (Tehran: Kitabkhanah-i Milli-yi Jumhuri-yi Islami-yi Iran, 1377/1999). In some instances, my references to these journals refer to original copies. 10 Danish, No. 6, 7 Dhul-qa'da 1328/1910, p. 3. 11 Amuzegar, No. 14, 10 Ramadan 1329/1911, p. 4. 12 Shikufah, fourth year, No. 1, 1 Safar 1334/1915, pp. 3–4. 13 For more on the history of hygiene in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century-Iran, see F. Kashani-Sabet, ‘Hallmarks of Humanism: Hygiene and Love of Homeland in Qajar Iran,’ American Historical Review, October 2000. 14 Tarbiyat, No. 75, 11 April 1898, p. 300. 15 See F. Kashani-Sabet, ‘Giving Birth: Women, Nursing, and Sexual Hygiene in Iran’. Paper presented at the Fourth Biennial Conference of Iranian Studies, May 2002. Forthcoming in print. Also, Adab, Nos. 9 & 10, 30 January 1899, p. 36. 16 Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), p. 283. 17 For discussions of the nation as a motherland, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, ‘The Erotic Vatan [homeland] as Beloved and Mother: To Love, To Possess, and To Protect’, Comparative Studies in Society and History (July 1997): 442–467. For related discussions, see F. Kashani-Sabet, ‘The Frontier Phenomenon: Perceptions of the Land in Iranian Nationalism’, Critique (Spring 1997): 19–38. For references to mothers and patriotism, see Shikufah, No.19, third year, 4 Dhul-hijja 1333/ 1915, p. 2–3. Also, Shikufah, fourth year, No. 5, 3 Jumada al-Avval 1334/1916. There are numerous other references to patriotism in Shikufah as well, though it is significant to point out that Danish placed less emphasis on this issue. 18 For some statistics on women's schools in 1912–1914, see Shikufah, second year, No. 20, 1 Safar 1332/1913`, pp. 3–4. Afsaneh Najmabadi, ‘Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran’, in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp. 107–111. 19 Shikufah, second year, No. 22, 5 Rabi’ al-Avval 1332/1914, pp. 3–4. 20 Mirza Sayyid Muhammad Qummi, Ta'limat-i Muduniyah (Tehran: Shams, 1330/1912), p. 34. According to its title page, this textbook was approved and written according to the ‘program and instructions’ of the education ministry. 21 One notable dissenter from the Qajar period was Mirza Malkum Khan, who frequently talked about nineteenth-century Iran's backwardness vis-à-vis the civilised world, see Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, Sih Maktub, edited by B. Choubine (Tehran: Intisharat-i Mard-i Imruz, 1370/1991). 22 Bahar, No. 7, Second Year, Rajab 1340/1922, p. 430. 23 Bahar, No. 7, Second Year, Rajab 1340/1922, p. 431. 24 Namah-i Farangistan, No. 3, 1 July 1924, pp. 110–112. 25 Farhang, second year, No. 4, June–July 1925, pp. 153–155. 26 Farhang, second year, No. 4, June–July 1925, pp. 156–159. 27 For background information, see Parvin Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 90–101. 28 Paidar, Women and the Political Process, p. 97. 29 Payk-i Sa'adat-i Nisvan, Nos. 4–5, 1928, pp. 98–100. 30 Payk-i Sa'adat-i Nisvan, No. 2, January 1928, p. 42. 31 Payk-i Sa'adat-i Nisvan, No. 6, Shahrivar 1307/August 1928, p. 166. 32 Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, ‘Frontier Fictions: Land, Culture, and Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804–1946’, (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1997). 33 For a discussion of schoolbooks used in women's schools in the late Qajar period, see F. Kashani-Sabet, Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804–1946 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), chapter six. 34 In his book, Camron Amin understates the importance of the nationalist debate and culture of the 1930s in shaping the women's movement. It is my contention, however, that the women's movement of the early twentieth century must be viewed as being inextricably linked to the nationalist movement in Iran. Moreover, while Amin considers many aspects of female education in Iran, his study does not evaluate the content of the actual textbooks used in Iranian women's academies. 35 For related discussions of this issue, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, ‘Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran’, in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp. 91–125. In this paper, I dispute Najmabadi's conclusion that ‘Riza Shah's program of constructing the citizen as a servant of the state … provided the possibility for women to break out of the trap of what can now indeed be named domesticity’, p. 114. 36 Akhlaq literature has been discussed in my work, Frontier Fictions, chapter six, and in A. Najmabadi, ‘Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran’. From my reading of the akhlaq texts from the late Qajar period, I have rendered them into English as ‘manners’ because of their heavy behaviourial stress and their emphasis on feminine virtues. While Najmabadi has referred to them as ethics books, my sources were concerned less with ethics in the Aristotelian sense, and more preoccupied with the proper modes of social behaviour for young Iranian women. 37 Badr al-Muluk Bamdad, Akhlaq (Tehran: Firdawsi, 1931), p. 32. 38 Bamdad, Akhlaq, p. 43. 39 Bamdad, Akhlaq, p. 41. 40 Badr al-Muluk Bamdad, Tadbir-i Manzil (Tehran: Iqbal, 1310/1931). F. Kashani-Sabet discusses the theme of housekeeping (khanih dari) as a science (’ilm), in her dissertation, ‘Frontier Fictions: Land, Culture and Shaping the Iranian Nation’, (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1997), chapter 6. For a recent discussion of missionary contributions to and influence on the content of female education in modern Iran, see Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi, ‘The Women's Press, Modern Education, and the State in Early Twentieth-Century Iran, 1900–1930s’, (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 2000). 41 Badr al-Muluk Bamdad, Tadbir-i Manzil (Tehran: Iqbal, 1310/1931). F. Kashani-Sabet discusses the theme of housekeeping (khanih dari) as a science (’ilm), in her dissertation, ‘Frontier Fictions: Land, Culture and Shaping the Iranian Nation’, (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1997), chapter 6. For a recent discussion of missionary contributions to and influence on the content of female education in modern Iran, see Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi, ‘The Women's Press, Modern Education, and the State in Early Twentieth-Century Iran, 1900–1930s’, (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 2000), p.1. 42 Badr al-Muluk Bamdad, Tadbir-i Manzil (Tehran: Iqbal, 1310/1931). F. Kashani-Sabet discusses the theme of housekeeping (khanih dari) as a science (’ilm), in her dissertation, ‘Frontier Fictions: Land, Culture and Shaping the Iranian Nation’, (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1997), chapter 6. For a recent discussion of missionary contributions to and influence on the content of female education in modern Iran, see Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi, ‘The Women's Press, Modern Education, and the State in Early Twentieth-Century Iran, 1900–1930s’, (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 2000), pp. 3–4. 43 Badr al-Muluk Bamdad, Tadbir-i Manzil (Tehran: Iqbal, 1310/1931). F. Kashani-Sabet discusses the theme of housekeeping (khanih dari) as a science (’ilm), in her dissertation, ‘Frontier Fictions: Land, Culture and Shaping the Iranian Nation’, (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1997), chapter 6. For a recent discussion of missionary contributions to and influence on the content of female education in modern Iran, see Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi, ‘The Women's Press, Modern Education, and the State in Early Twentieth-Century Iran, 1900–1930s’, (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 2000), pp. 177–190. 44 F. Kashani-Sabet, Frontier Fictions, chapter six, for more on the role of education in Iranian nationalism and in domesticating the homeland. 45 Ta'lim va Tarbiyat, seventh year, No. 8, 1937. 46 Ta'lim va Tarbiyat, sixth year, No. 12, 1936, p. 864. 47 Najmabadi, ‘Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran’, p. 114. 48 For studies of Qasim Amin and the Egyptian women's movement, see Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992); and Beth Baron, The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994). For a discussion of the reception of Amin's ideas in Iran, see Najmabadi, ‘Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran’, p. 101. 49 Shikufah, second year, No. 23, 20 Rabi’ al-Avval 1332/1914, p. 4. 50 Shikufah, second year, No. 24, 5 Rabi’ al-Thani 1332/1914, p. 3. 51 Farangistan, Nos. 9–10, January–February 1925, pp. 439–443. 52 For a study of the veil and Iranian sartorial fashion in the Pahlavi period, see Houchang Chehabi, ‘Staging the Emperor's New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation-Building under Reza Shah’, Iranian Studies, Volume 26: 3–4 (Spring/Fall 1993): 209–229. For other important studies, see Eliz Sanasarian, The Women's Rights Movement in Iran: Mutiny, Appeasement and Repression from 1900 to Khomeini (New York: Praeger, 1982); and Parvin Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). 53 Dabistan, No. 9, 26 Safar 1346/ 24 August 1927, pp. 385–389. 54 Payk-i Sa'adat-i Nisvan, Nos. 4–5, Urdibihisht and Tir 1307/Spring-Summer 1928, pp. 121–126. 55 Vaqa'ih-i Kashf-i Hijab (Tehran: Mu'assassah-i Mutali'at-i Farhangi, 1371/1992), p. 21. 56 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tehran, ‘Guzarishi dar barayih-i musafarat-i A'la Hazrat Reza Shah Kabir bih Turkiyah’, 1313/1934 – Carton 20. For an interesting article on this trip, see Afshin Marashi, ‘Performing the Nation: The Shah's Official State Visit to Turkey, June to July 1934’ in Stephanie Cronin, The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921–1941 (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp. 99–119. A translation of the official programme of the king's visit did not contain any information on this issue, either. See ‘Tarjumah-i Program’, 1313/1934 – Carton 20. 57 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tehran, Note to Ataturk, 1313/1934 – Carton 20. 58 Khattabah'hayah Kanun-i Banuvan (Tehran: Intisharat-i Kanun-i Banuvan, 1935), p. 1. 59 Khattabah'hayah Kanun-i Banuvan (Tehran: Intisharat-i Kanun-i Banuvan, 1935) 60 ‘Nizamnamah-i Kanun-i Banuvan’, National Archives, Tehran, Ma'arif Alif, 51006/568, April 1935. 61 For reference to one such attempt, see National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 103013/9886, ‘Guzarish-i Damavand’, 4 Tir 1316/1937. 62 National Archives, Tehran, Foreign Ministry Files, 2910001495, 20 Day 1315/1937. 63 Bamdad, From Darkness into Light, p. 94. 64 For a related discussion of veiling and the ‘woman question’, see Camron Michael Amin, ‘Propaganda and Remembrance: Gender, Education, and the ‘Women's Awakening’ of 1936’, Iranian Studies, vol. 32, no. 3, (Summer 1999): 351–386. This is a thought-provoking article on the woman's question in Iran. It is my belief, however, that Amin overstates the role of the Iranian press in discussing the history of the women's movement in Iran. While the press was certainly an effective and important medium for discussion of Iranian modernity and feminist ideals, and remains an indispensable source for gleaning information about the culture of the times, a reading of historical sources from areas other than the press, including the actual schoolbooks from the Qajar and Pahlavi years as well as archival data, indicate that the content and media of female education and other instruments of propaganda served an equally important function in informing and influencing the evolution of the women's question in Iran - a question which did not originate in the modern Iranian press. Moreover, the woman's question, like the press itself, was not static. There were shifts and nuances in definitions of modernity, patriotic womanhood, and effective mothering from the Qajar through the early Pahlavi periods, nuances that ought to be more clearly delineated. 65 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 2910001495, 20 Day 1314/1936, p. 2. 66 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 2910001495, 27 Day 1314/1936. 67 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 2910001495, 27 Day 1314/1936 discusses one such occasion at which the wives of various government officials were present. 68 Parvin I‘tisami, Divan-i Qasa'id va Masnaviyat va Tamsilat va Muqatta‘at (Tehran, 1977); and Muhamad Taqi Bahar, Malik al-Shu‘ara, Divan-i ash‘ar-i shadravan Muhammad Taqi Bahar Malik al-Shu‘ara (Tehran: Firdawsi, 1956). 69 Sina Vahid, Qiyam-i Gawharshad (Tehran: Vizarat-i Farhang va Irshad-i Islami, 1366/1987). 70 British Documents on Foreign Affairs, Part II Series B, Turkey, Iran and the Middle East, edited by Kenneth Bourne and D. Cameron Watt (University Publications of America, 1994), vol. 28, p. 45. (Dated 11 January 1936). Knatchbull-Hugessen further speculated that “one of the causes of the fall of the late Prime Minister, M. Feroughi, is thought to have been his opposition to the rapidity with which the Shah proposed to press on the unveiling.” Sina Vahid, Qiyam-i Gawharshad (Tehran: Vizarat-i Farhang va Irshad-i Islami, 1366/1987), p. 45. 71 British Documents on Foreign Affairs, vol. 28, p. 56 (dated 7 February 1936). 72 British Documents on Foreign Affairs, vol. 28, pp. 60–61 (dated 3 February 1936). 73 British Documents on Foreign Affairs, vol. 28, p. 61. 74 Iran, National Archives, Prime Ministry Files, File 103013, Folder 9692, dated 18 Farvardin 1315/7 April 1936. 75 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 103013/9950, 24 Farvardin 1317/1938, p. 3. 76 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 103013/9580, 23 Day 1315/1937. 77 National Archives, Tehran, Ministry of Post and Telegraph, Bahman 1316/1938. 78 Khushunat va Farhang: Asnad-i Mahramanah-i Kashf-i Hijab (Tehran: Intisharat-i Sazman-i Asnad-i Milli-yi Iran, 1371/1992), p. 102 & 227 & 231. 79 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 103013/9886, “Guzarish-i Damavand,” 16 Khurdad 1316/1937. 80 National Archives, Tehran, Isfahan Records, 2910001495, 4 Bahman 1315/1937. 81 Iran, National Archives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 Day 1316/9 January 1938, Weekly Report, p. 1. For more on the subject of marriage, hygiene, venereal disease, and population concerns, see F. Kashani-Sabet, “The Politics of Reproduction: Maternalism and Women's Hygiene in Iran, 1896–1941,” forthcoming. 82 National Archives, Tehran, Ministry of culture, 2910002573, 12 Day 1317/1939. 83 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 108011/3268, ‘Amar-i Jalisat-i Sukhanranihayih Parvarish-i Afkar’. 84 National Archives, Tehran, Prime Ministry Files, 108011/3268, ‘Fihrist-i Mawzu'hayih Sukhanraniha’. 85 ’Alam-i Nisvan, 12th year, No. 5 (1932), p. 193. For an alternative translation of this passage, see Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi, ‘Expanding Agendas for the ‘New’ Iranian Woman: Family Law, Work, and Unveiling’, In Cronin, The Making of Modern Iran, p. 157. 86 For an interesting study of women in post-revolutionary Iran, see Haleh Esfandiari, Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution (Washington: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1997). Additional informationNotes on contributorsFiroozeh Kashani-Sabet1 Much of the data for this project was gathered during several research trips to Iran beginning in 1994. Elements of this research were brought together in my dissertation in 1997. I also presented a version of this paper at the Biennial Conference of Iranian Studies in May 2000. In its revised format I have taken account of the new scholarship that has been put forth on related issues.