It all started in February 1922, in Tehran. That day was a window to a new perspective and new hopes and wishes; Tehran women took their first step to claim their legal rights. The forerunner was a modernist and educated lady named “Mohtaram Eskandari,” who founded the “Patriotic women’s society”.”
Eskandari had a short life; she only was 29 years old when she died, but in this short life, she took great strides and became the leader of women who wanted to progress in line with the new world. Eskandari was a Qajar princess, Granddaughter of Abbas Mirza Nayeb ol-Saltana, and great granddaughter of Fath Ali shah Qajar. When she was the principal of Public School No. 35, she invited several intellectual women from Tehran to attend the girls’ school exam. The exams were held on January 31, 1923, and and Ms Eskandari, the school principal, spoke to the invited ladies under the pretext that that day was the first time that the girls were giving their exams. Her speech had two important bases: first, the need for girls to study and mothers to be literate, and second, to wear Iranian clothes and avoid using Western fabrics. But her speech that day had another achievement: the first attempt to establish an association of Tehran women, called “Iranian Patriotic Women’s Society.”
Women’s demands; Legal rights
During the chaotic situation of Ahmad Shah’s reign and the consequences of the WWI the women of Tehran united to demand their legal rights. Founding the Iranian Patriotic women’s society was for this reason. What they wanted was to let women have access to education, emphasize on nationalism, fight illiteracy, support national products and increase the number of education institutions for girls. They believed and wrote: “The first step is reform in the family and presenting educated mothers to the society”. This was what they stressed on in every edition of the magazine that they published.
In addition to Mohtaram Eskandari, the founder of the women society, several modernist ladies cooperated with her with great enthusiasm; women such as Moluk Eskandari who succeeded her sister Eskandari, who succeeded his sister Eskandari, Noor al-Huda Manganeh, the first secretary of the Women’s Association, Nusrat Moshiri, Esmat al-Muluk Sharifi, Hayedeh Afshar, and later a famous lady named Mastoorah Afshar. When only two years had passed since the founding of the Women’s Society, and and Miss Eskandari died in august 1951, Mastureh Afshar succeeded her and did not allow Eskandari’s efforts to be in vain. The founders of the Women’s Society were ten enlightened ladies who carried out their work with diligence and empathy. But those who had a membership card were close to 200.
Membership cards were issued for the female members of the society. The cards bore the logo of the society, which was the open wings of Farvahar. Inside the wings and the middle ring were groups of women holding the ring in solidarity. The Farvahar logo was a sign of the insistence of this society for Iranization.
Members had to abide by the constitution of the Society. Each month, they paid a small membership fee ranging from one rial to five rials. Meetings were also held daily between 1923 and 1924. Each meeting was held in turn in the homes of the members of the Society. Thus, the sessions were rotational and did not have a fixed venue. Most interesting of all was that if one of the Society members performed something outstanding, she would receive a badge of honor named “Flower of our Country” (gol-e vatan) and her name would be recorded in the Society’s diary. This badge had the three colors of the flag of Iran.
Anger at the publication of an insulting booklet
When the women’s community members were engaged in their efforts to obtain Iranian women’s rights, a booklet called “Women’s Cunning” was circulated (1924). The booklet was full of insults and vulgar remarks about what was called women’s cunning. In response to such an insulting book, one of the women of that time, named Bibi Khanum Astarabadi, wrote another book called “The Disadvantages of Men” or “The Defects of Men”! However, the patriotic women knew they had to do something and show their displeasure and anger at the publishing of “Women’s cunning”. They announced that such an expression was a great insult to the dignity of women”.
Therefore, Ms Eskandari, along with 7-8 other lady founders of the Society, went to Sepah Square at 10:00 AM and set fire to several volumes of the book “Women.” The flames were such that they could be seen from a distance and caught everyone’s eye. This act of the Society ladies caused tumult and led to their arrest and interrogation. But they were not charged and had to be released after a few hours. It is surprising that the newspapers of Tehran at that time, in an annoying silence, did not make the slightest mention of this event, and the women were left to themselves.
Escape from the ruffians
Holding gatherings was not without its problems for the society. An example of this was their escape from the ruffians of Ismail Bazaz neighborhood in Tehran. The story of the escape was such that in May 1925, a group of the Society members had prepared a play by the name of “The servant and maid’s wedding” and had invited members to watch the play. They had arranged the stae and the rows of chairs and everything was in order as planned.
Their play was a two-act play in which female actors played roles. But less than an hour after the program had started, they were informed that some thugs had gathered outside, holding sticks and stones, waiting for the women to come out and throw themselves at them. As soon as the women of the crowd heard such frightening news, they secretly fled through another door on the side of the alley. Meanwhile, the thugs raided the house of Noor-ol-Hoda Manganeh and looted everything that was in the house. During police investigations it was revealed that the whole incident was planned by a group of women who were in rivalry with the Women’s society, and they were the ones who hired the thugs to raid the program venue! This was an example of the difficulties of women who just wanted to gain their legal rights.
We said earlier that one of the objectives of the Iranian Patriotic Women’s society was to use Iranian products. Noor-ol-Hoda and Ms Eskandari followed this goal until the end of their lives and used only Iranian products. They even bought a weaving machine to motivate members of the women’s community to make homemade fabrics.
When a German woman writer, Anne-Marie von Natazius, came to Iran in 1924 to study modern Persian literature, she became acquainted with the thoughts and works of Mastoorah Afshar and other members of the Society and expressed her amazement several times. At that time the women of Tehran truly had progressive and enlightened ideas. They published their ideas and demands in a periodical by the name of “The Iranian Patriotic women’s society”. Eleven issues of this monthly were published between 1923 and 1925. In addition, they had organized classes for the education of Tehran girls and women and had entrusted the work of education to teachers teachers that had joined the Society. Qodsieh Ashraf, Farrokh al-Zaman Kavousi, Shaukat al-Muluk Eskandari, and teaching in some classes was entrusted to Ashraf Khanom ghaem Maghami, and others. From these works we can guess what great strides those women took.
The Iranian Patriotic Women’s society also cooperated with some prominent writers. One of them was Prof Saeed Nafisi. Nafisi has written an interesting report of his meeting with Mastureh Afshar and other members of the Society. “I learned chastity first in the family, and then in meeting these noble women who are the founders of freedom and progress for Iran”, he said. He then describes Mastureh Afshar as follows: “I never saw the slightest hypocrisy in her. She never got tired of pursuing her great goals. She would try again and again. What deep love for her work I saw in her and what an unbelievable perseverance she had. I have not come across anyone who is so much in love with her beliefs and dreams. Whenever someone would start to praise her she would change the subject and divert their attention.
The patriotic women’s movement continued its efforts until 1936, when it ended its remarkable and effective work due to many obstacles that were imposed upon them. This Society was an example of the efforts of the women of Tehran to build a better future.
Source: The book “Patriotic Women of Iran” written by Mohammad Hossein Khosropanah (2019); Article “Patriotic Women” written by Forough Azizi (Book City Magazine – June 2017); The book “Iranian Woman and the Age of Enlightenment” written by Nazli Eskandarinezhad (2021) and “Narrated by Saeed Nafisi” by Alireza Etesam (2008).
