The Historical Relationship between Women’s Education and Women’s Activism in Iran

Introduction

The historical analysis of women’s activism in Iran shows that education has always been considered an important factor for Iranian women and something that they have always demanded. The right to education is non-negotiable, embedded in the teaching of Islam as well as in human rights provisions.

The historical analysis and a review of the available literature on Iranian women’s education help us to gain an understanding of the past in order to connect it to the future. The historical review of who the women activists were, what kinds of activities they engaged in, and where they were located is at the core of the historical analysis. This may assist in comparing and contrasting different sets of ideas about women’s political participation in Iran and it is also useful to consider various sources of history in order to gain insight into women’s past practices, which is evidence to support the diversity and complexity of women’s present needs (Schmidt, 1993).

This paper aims to analyze the long tradition of Iranian women’s active participation in education throughout the Safavid period (1501- 1722) and the Qajar period (1794-1925). In particular, it will focus on three historical figures in order to give us an explicit understanding of women’s education during these periods. Women’s demand for education continued into the twentieth century and by the time of the constitutional revolution (1905-1911), during which Iranian women participated immensely in political affairs, elite and non-elite women had formed an alliance around educational issues. They were fighting for the right to education, which at the time was barely available to the majority of women. Therefore, the women’s rights movements gained particular visibility; however, the focus shifted from modernization based on Westernization during the Pahlavi period (1925-1979), towards Islamization from 1979 onwards. As a consequence, the relationship between secular and religious women (in connection with education) has varied from one period to the next. It is important to point out that the use of the terms modernization and Westernization side by side does not imply that they are the same thing. The concepts of modernization and Westernization are and have always been problematic when analyzing Iranian history. This is because the affinity between the two terms turns modernity as a process into Westernization as the end result. This is particularly important because, during the Pahlavi period (1925-1979), state modernization was closely associated with Westernization and simultaneously women’s movements in Iran emerged through Westernization, therefore it is always difficult to separate the two terms (Paidar, 1995).

Although the circumstances have been difficult, women have continued to fight for their right to education during the twenty-first century, when they have been connected inside the country as well as with the outside world.

Conceptual framework and methodology

In this work, the number of historical sources is limited, as women’s participation in education is not well documented. This is because historical texts are “largely written by men and focused upon male agencies, male activities and male experiences” (Purvis, 1994, p. 167). It is the case that: “Women, like men, have been actors in history, and yet their achievements and struggles have generally been neglected by mainstream historians who concentrate upon male subjects, male activities and male experiences” (Purvis, 1992, p. 273).

A variety of secondary sources have been used, including books and journals, because: “Secondary sources are especially useful for giving an overview of themes related to the proposed research” (Purvis, 1994, p. 168). Primary sources, even though very limited, have also been used as vital sources of information. These include women’s own writings, such as autobiographies and life histories, although it is worth noting that autobiographies were only written by a few of the elite women. There are very few prior to the twentieth century, but even these can be very helpful. Autobiographies offer many advantages since, as accounts of individual experiences and events, they may be very different from the view of another observer (Purvis, 1992).

In parts of this paper may be found translations of Persian sources, as some of the information has never been available in English. Translation can lead to a loss of meaning. This problem may be caused by a lack of linguistic terms. For example, in some cases, it might be impossible to find the “conceptual equivalence” (Birbili, 2000, p. 2) of some words.

The Safavid Period (1501-1722)

The Safavid dynasty was rooted in a Sufi order led by Sheykh Safi al-Din Ardabili (born in 1252), after whom the Safavids were named. His monastery was located in Tabriz, where his followers from different parts of Iran used to gather. After his death in 1334, and during his successor’s leadership, the Sufi order played a significant role in adopting Shia Islam as its main faith; consequently, in 1501 Shah Ismail 1, the founder of the Safavid dynasty, accepted Twelver Shia Islam as the official religion of Iran. It is worth noting that when Shiism was accepted by Shah Ismail 1, there were many Sunni Muslims in Iran who were permitted to practice freely, but later in the Safavid period when his grandson, Shah Abbas (born in 1571), came to power, he only recognized orthodox Twelver Shia as the official state religion. Safavid militants adopted a twelve-sided baton cut from red scarlet silk and planted it into their turbaned headgear as a symbol of their veneration of the Twelve Imams. Many Sunnis were persecuted and fled the country and some of them were killed (Soudavar, 2002). However, there are others who argue the opposite; therefore, there is a debate on this issue.

During the Safavid Period (1501-1722), certain Islamic rights were recognized for women. Even though Islam had disempowered women for a period of time, with the establishment of Shiism as the official religion of the country, which was primarily concerned with justice, women were allowed to regain power and had the right to exercise it.

In particular, women’s right to education was recognized by the Safavids, and recognizing this right was felt to be important to facilitate access to education, although education was only available to elite harem women. Having been educated, they could then gain access to their other rights, which were financial independence and power to participate in the political affairs of the country. They also benefited from this power through their connections with the king as wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers. The importance of looking at the Safavid period is to explore the fact that women were “visible and socially active” (Szuppe, 2003, p. 142). In particular, the right to education and learning for elite women was respected due to their independent means and wealth (Keddie, 2007; Szuppe, 1998).

One of the most influential and wealthy elite women during the Safavid Period was Pari Khan-Khanom (born in 1548), a highly controversial woman whose life illustrates the role of elite women in the Safavid harem. She was known to be the favorite daughter of Shah Tahmasb, who succeeded to the throne of Persia on 2 June 1524, and as a result she was able to gain power, which she later used to influence him directly. He often sought her advice on a variety of national matters, such as financial and political issues (Babayan, 1998; Golsorkhi, 1995; Ma-sum, 1972).

Pari Khan-Khanom’s distinctive role during the Safavid period can be identified through her personal characteristics as well as the way in which she exercised her power. Her intelligence and high level of literacy also caught her father’s attention. Her education in the harem came mainly from private tutors and included reading, writing, and calligraphy, all of which were regarded as basic knowledge. She was encouraged to learn the Koran and was interested in studying the major sciences as well as jurisprudence and Islamic law. She mastered all of these and her breadth of knowledge made her unique amongst the women of her time. She was also taught horse riding and the art of painting, which were considered to be important skills for women at the time. Composing letters was also common amongst the harem women, who utilized the skill either for personal correspondence or for their political activities (Babayan, 1998; Golsorkhi, 1995; Szuppe, 1998; Szuppe, 2003).

Being educated enabled her to take part in the political affairs of the country. The death of her father in 1576 was the beginning of Pari Khan-Khanom’s active political participation in the affairs of state. First and foremost, she played a significant role in the succession of her brother, Isma-il, who was 39 and had been away from the capital (Qazvin) for twelve years. In 1576, Pari Khan-Khanom controlled the country until Isma-il’s return to the capital for his coronation and accession to control of the state. She presumed that, by helping her brother, she could retain the respect and power that she had enjoyed during her father’s time, but when he took control of the Safavid dynasty, things did not work out favorably, either for her or for the rest of the royal family. Isma-il instigated a reign of terror and decided to kill every member of the royal family, believing they might take the throne from him. He believed that women’s interference in governmental matters dishonored the king, but as long as he did not see his sister as a threat to his kingdom he did not kill her. Nevertheless, she was isolated and in just a year her power and influence waned. When things became difficult in the harem, she decided to kill her brother in order to regain her power, and she succeeded in 1577 with the help of her supporters (Taj-bakhsh, 1961; Szuppe, 2003).

From this brief outline of women’s participation during the Safavid period it can be seen that education was considered to be fundamental during this period and it helped harem women to exercise political power. The available literature does not show any record of women’s political participation during the final century (seventeenth) of the Safavid dynasty until its end in 1722, but women’s political participation began to be recorded during the Qajar Period, from 1794.

The Qajar Period (1794-1925): A Time of Feminists’ Mobilization in Iran

The Qajar dynasty, like the Safavid, had a significant impact on the lives of women in Iran. Women’s activism continued throughout the Qajar Period (1794-1925), during which elite women, including the king’s harem and ulama’s daughters (Ulama refers to Muslim Legal Scholars), and non-elite women simultaneously played a major role in changing the destiny of the nation, and women in particular. Education continued to be at the core of elite women’s access to power. The ulama’s daughters were allowed religious studies while elite harem women could enjoy both religious studies and foreign languages, which enabled them to look beyond Iran’s national borders.

The Pahlavi Era (1925-1979): The Emergence of Women’s Movements through Westernization Policies

The whole political situation changed dramatically in Iran after the constitutional revolution (1905-1911) and this had a direct influence on women’s movements. This section considers the rapid transformation of Iranian women’s movements during the Pahlavi era (1925-1979) from the perspective of education. It also analyzes the way in which the relationship between secular and religious elite women, in connection to education, has varied over time. In December 1925, Reza Khan succeeded to the throne as monarch and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. From that point, the Pahlavi governed the country as a “Centralizing Patriarchy” (Sedghi, 2007, p. 62) for 54 years (Reza Shah: 1925-1941 and Mohammad Reza Shah 1941-1979), and this dramatically affected women’s movements (Vatandoust, 1985). “The ideology of the ‘Great Civilization’ in Iran was supported and applauded by the majority of Western governments and it was reflected in Western media” (Paidar, 1995, p. 150).

In 1925, when Reza Shah came to power, Iranian women’s movements gained momentum because of his modernization policies, which required education. However, the necessary requirement for creating educated women was unveiling, which caused tension. I shall discuss whether Reza Shah’s modernization and Westernization policies, through education and unveiling, widened the gaps amongst elite women (between those with religious and non-religious backgrounds) and between elite and non-elite women.

From 1941 to 1979, during the reign of Reza Mohammad Shah, elite women activists tried to be much more systematic about how to fight for their rights and also about prioritizing their goals. Women became more conscious of their political and legal rights. The right to education was considered to be the foundation of women’s emancipation. In addition, the foundation of charitable and social organizations as well as political organizations facilitated women’s movements.

The Islamic Revolution (1979 onwards)

Iranian women continued their active presence throughout the 20th century. They were active participants in the Revolution in 1979. Different groups of women (elite and non-elite), with many different motives, were involved. After the 1979 revolution, it appeared that women had lost all the ground that they had gained during the previous century; however, a closer examination reveals that they did not lose everything, and they have been very effective in regaining the lost ground by locating their arguments firmly in the context of Islam. Their active presence was pivotal in fighting for women’s rights. Their demands were shaped by Shia Islam and its concern with justice, which enabled women to ensure that they could exercise their rights, such as financial independence, as a non-negotiable Islamic right. They also wanted to extend their demands for justice, which would actually indicate an entitlement to political participation. So they demanded the right to political participation and to education. One of the impacts of the revolution on women’s rights in its immediate aftermath was the segregation of schools. The right to education is a non-negotiable right, embedded in the teaching of Islam.

In May 1979, all elementary and high schools were segregated by gender in order to purify the educational system from Western influence. Blame was placed on the secularized Western educational system that had been in place for 50 years, and had produced an un-Islamic intellectual elite. Thus, in 1980, in order to purify the educational system and to eradicate secularism, the High Council of the Cultural Revolution, a group of seven men, was established and given the responsibility to revise educational materials to eliminate any hint of anti- Islamic ideas. Its initial step was the closure of all schools and universities. However, the “demand for ideological purification and integral Islamic education, which was central to the cultural revolution, had to be accommodated in the context of increasing numbers of students, and deteriorating conditions in the schools” (Omid, 1994, p. 158).

The required number of schools could not be secured immediately; therefore, some schools had to have classes for boys in the morning and for girls in the afternoon. In addition, girls-only schools had lower standards than boys-only schools. In some instances, schools did not have enough female students to set up some classes (Tabari, 1982).

The Cultural Revolution also affected universities. From 1979 to 1983, all the universities were closed in order to be purified of Western influences. Even after they were re-opened, many faculties excluded women and many subjects were banned for women and restricted to men. Only those women who chose religious studies could easily find a place at university. On the whole, women were severely discriminated against because they were barred from 97 academic subjects. Women were banned from vocational training schools and excluded from studying engineering, mining, and agriculture, with no regard for the fact that two-thirds of Iran’s women who live in rural areas perform much of the agricultural labor. It is worth noting that those women who were entitled to the few available places topped the marks in the entrance examinations and achieved high levels in some subjects (Goodwin, 2003; Omid, 1994).

One of the most important discriminatory measures in women’s education was banning them from the faculty of law. This proclamation, which was a big failure, had two significant outcomes. One could argue that they indicated the opposing ideas of leading religious figures about women’s rights because Ayatollah Beheshti, the post-revolutionary head of the judiciary, was absolutely against this policy. He set up informal classes to teach Islamic law to graduates, which enabled female graduates to achieve the necessary Islamic legal training. It can also be argued that this discriminatory policy was the initial step towards further changes in women’s personal law, in particular, Family Protection Law and the judicial system (Afshar, 2002).

Women parliamentarians and activists fought for women’s rights to education. In 1982, women parliamentarians succeeded in increasing the age of marriage in the Civil Code as they argued that early marriage for girls runs counter to the social and economic plans of the government. They argued that there is a direct correlation between age of marriage and education for girls. The core aim of the Islamic Republic was to facilitate education for all its citizens, but if a girl is allowed to get married at the age of nine what will happen to her education? Based on Koranic instructions, all Muslims must be educated; therefore, any barriers placed in the way of women’s education must be removed. If a woman’s role in society is to be a good mother, she should be educated to raise a good family. They also repeatedly referred to Imam Khomeini’s support for women’s education, as his daughter, Farideh Mostafavi Khomeini, revealed: “he personally taught my mother and asked my late brother to teach me. At a time when women were viewed as unsuited to education, the late saint Khomeini told my late brother [Ahmad] to teach me, which he did for many years” (Afshar, 2002, p. 6).

In April 1985, a law was ratified allowing married female students to travel abroad for higher education with governmental funding. Although this law was a significant achievement for women, its conditions created other problems, such as marriages of convenience. Although every step forward in defending women’s rights was priceless, women parliamentarians had a long and difficult way to go.

Because women activists had criticized the government’s performance on women’s issues, the Bureau of Women’s Affairs (BWA) was created in 1991 within the Presidential Office. It became the Center for Women’s Participation in 1997 and the Center for Women’s and Family Affairs in 2005; each had a different ideology around the protection of women’s rights. The BWA reported directly to the President and its aim was to improve conditions for women through the reform of laws affecting them. The idea to create the BWA came from Marziyeh Sadighi, a reform-minded woman, who was an engineer educated in the West and who was elected to the third and fifth Majlis, and Shahla Habibi, who became the President’s advisor on women’s affairs during the fourth Majlis, and later joined the cabinet. Masoumeh Ebtekar, a Western-educated woman who was known for her revolutionary activities during the Islamic Revolution and became the vice president in charge of protection of the environment during the fifth Majlis in 1997, was appointed as the Bureau’s education and training program advisor. In order to be effective and to examine women’s issues, the Bureau opened offices in different Ministries, such as the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labor. Most importantly, it tried to work closely with the WSCC and SCCR, and it was as a result of this cooperation that women’s bureaus were established in different Ministries. Women’s education and their economic situation were important programs for the BWA and SCCR; therefore, most of the cooperation was on education (Afshar, 2002; Omid, 1994).

In 1991, although the education of women remained a contested area in politics and there were many restrictions, the WSCC submitted a project to the High Council of the Cultural Revolution proposing that the disadvantageous treatment of women in higher education and in the selection of degree courses be eliminated. This proposal was considered and ratified but it did little to reduce the discrimination against women that barred them from studying 119 university subjects (Afshar, 2002; Omid, 1994).

On the other hand, one of the great achievements of the time was the reform of education law. In 2000, after almost a decade of lobbying, unmarried female students were permitted to study abroad. Also, the establishment of a women’s studies program as a university subject was a great step forward. In 2000, the first women’s studies institute, the Iranian Society for Women’s Studies, was established. In 2001, through the efforts of women’s rights advocates, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tarbiat Modares University and Al Zahra University, all of which were government universities, set up women’s studies programs at the Master of Arts level, and shortly thereafter Tehran University organized a similar program. Three subjects were offered: women and family, the history of women, and women’s rights under Islam.

Since 2005, many attempts have been made to limit women’s education; none of them have been successful. The roles of women as mothers and wives were advertised and celebrated while attempts were made to limit their presence in the public sphere. The rumor spread that the government’s strategy was to eliminate women from the public sphere altogether and hardliner women parliamentarians facilitated this process.

Conclusion

This paper has conducted a historical analysis of women’s education and its relationship with women’s activism in Iran. Women’s demand for education continued through different eras and has never ceased. The long tradition of women’s demands for education is evidence of the current movements and needs of Iranian women. A brief overview of the presence of active Iranian women, who already had over a century of struggle for their right to education, has been presented. During different eras, women have been treated differently regarding their right to education and at some points they faced difficulties even in practicing their rights.

At the present time, 2015, there are different understandings and attitudes towards women’s education in Iran. There are some groups who believe that it should be limited to certain specific subjects and that women should study subjects that suit them most because if we do not limit women’s education, all the men’s jobs will be taken away from them. There are others who have a slightly different view, believing that education is an Islamic right and cannot be limited. However, if there is a need in society to have more female ophthalmologists or gynecologists, why do we not encourage women to study these subjects? Despite different attempts to limit women’s access to education, the mood is very clear: the majority of women feel very strongly that the Islamic right of women to education must be protected.

Although the circumstances were at times extremely difficult, women have always continued to fight for their right to education, and recently there has been an easing of circumstances and a growing optimism amongst Iranian women’s activists. Women’s activists seem to be very cautiously optimistic about women’s movements inside Iran. The process is hard, it is over a century old, and it will be much older still before we get there. However, as women gain a broader and more effective presence the future becomes brighter for them.

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