Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran Page 6
The Pahlavi era’s Fifth National Development Plan (1973– 1978), was enacted during a decade when the quadrupling of oil prices enabled a widening of the scope of educational and social development, including “trained manpower, equalizing opportunities between the rich and poor, raising the levels of female education, and expanding research to eradicate illiteracy,” along with a forecasted projection of a “Sixth Plan” for “increasing the country’s educational system, utilizing foreign professionals and experts, expansion of educational buildings, and improvements in educational standards,” which paved the way for “higher education to respond more rapidly to the country’s requirements.”43
In the art of “nation building,” analysts and economists “regard education as an investment rather than a consumer item. As one of the most important sectors of social services, education is highly regarded as a long-term investment, catering to the needs of a society.”44
Shortly after ascending the throne, the Shah declared “only education could steer the national ship (kashti-ye vatan) toward the shores of progress (sahel-e tarraqi).”45 To that end, in 1943 the government ratified a law providing free and compulsory education for all citizens. But its enforcement was impossible given the scarcity of facilities and instructors, particularly in rural and tribal areas.46
In this monumental task, U.S. assistance once again proved instrumental in training Iranian educators. The Department of Research and Curriculum Planning worked in partnership with a team of American advisors to modify all elementary and secondary programs, enabling students to learn a variety of skills in conjunction with the set curriculum.47 Brigham Young University, Utah State Agricultural College, and the University of Nebraska developed extensive agricultural programs throughout the country and in the process created a system of movable tent schools for the nomadic tribal population. Supplementary measures carried out by the Ministry of Education and UNESCO resulted in the establishment of specialized departments to administer vocational and agricultural schools throughout the provinces.
Teaching English, an important component of the educational system, was also integrated into the curriculum by the new administration. By 1959, all 8,000 state-run primary schools and 1,100 secondary schools offered instruction in the English language.
The Shah, educated in Switzerland, and his Minister of Education, Isa Sadiq, who was educated in France and the United States, were acutely aware of the enormous benefits of modernizing the school system. In the following passage, Sadiq, one of the most influential educational reformers in twentieth-century Iran, asserts “[tradition] can be changed” in order to benefit the society:
First, the shackles of tradition (‘sonnat’) and the past were removed from my hands and ankles. Before traveling to the U.S., all customs, habits, practices, laws, institutions, seemed to me unchangeable. In the U.S., I learned that traditions can be changed, and they were created in the first place for the utility and progress of society. If they do not benefit the community, it is possible to adapt them to the needs of a different time and place.48
American influence clearly played a role in revamping Iran’s educational infrastructure. Prior to 1957, the system had been based on the French model, consisting of two cycles of six years each. In 1957, on the recommendation of U.S. consultants, secondary education was divided into two halves, making it equivalent to the American junior and senior high schools. Later, the Ministry of Education implemented a three-tiered structure consisting of five years of elementary, three years of intermediate, and four years of high school.49
In 1960, the Shah expressed his desire to “establish a university modeled on American lines, with a primarily American staff” which would help meet the requirements of the “thousands of young people who at present go to study abroad.”50 In order to make his vision a reality, a team of advisors from the University of Pennsylvania in cooperation with Iran’s educational elite embarked on the task of developing the Pahlavi University in Shiraz.51 Officially inaugurated in 1963, the university was largely staffed by American graduates, with English as the primary language of instruction and a curriculum based on institutions of higher education in the United States. The “Penn Team” was responsible for developing an integrated core curriculum centered on a liberal arts education, creating a faculty of arts and sciences and launching The Asia Institute to house the Iranian Studies Program.
How did these monumental changes impact women? In subscribing to his father’s ideology, the Shah announced:
I should personally like to see further advances in broadening the opportunities for our women … my aim being that our women should enjoy the same basic rights as men.… If a woman wants to become a physicist, she should have the opportunity to do so, regardless of sex.…52
In reference to the veil, he deviated from his father’s enforced mandate. In his own words, the Shah “preferred to see a more natural progression towards this endeavor.”53
Despite the government’s efforts to increase female access to educational institutions and expand schooling throughout the provinces, a disparity persisted between the rural and urban populations. According to official government statistics, during the 1950s only 17 percent of villages had schools, and out of the 10 percent of girls between the ages of twelve and eighteen attending secondary schools, the vast majority were concentrated in Tehran.54 The Shah therefore came to the conclusion that “no basic solution to the country’s educational problems was possible by ordinary methods; and [in order] to transform these circumstances, rapid and effective war on illiteracy by revolutionary and unusual means was necessary.…”55
In 1962, the White Revolution (Enqelab-e Sefid) was launched. Given that name to reflect that the Shah’s reform movement was bloodless, it was also known as The Revolution of the Shah and the People (Enqelab-e Shah va Mardom). This multidimensional package of policy guidelines, designed to facilitate the transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy, was viewed by the Shah as “essentially an Iranian revolution compatible with the spirit and tradition of the Iranian people.”56
Although land reform was the principal objective of these new policy guidelines, a primary feature was the enfranchisement of women. The Shah believed that this decree would “free women of their age-long captivity, and put an end to a social disgrace [which is] contrary to the real spirit of Islam.”57 He justified his decision to give women the right to vote with these powerful words:
How can a man give rights to himself yet deprive his mother and sister of the same rights? How can a man say that his mother who has given him his very life, is in the same category as lunatics? This argument is against nature, humanity and civilization.58
In 1963, Iranian women were given the right to vote as part of Mohammad Reza Shah’s White Revolution (Enqelab-e-Sefid)—a multi-dimensional package of policy guidelines including the enfranchisement of woman.
LITERACY ADVOCATES
Included in the Shah’s White Revolution package were free and compulsory education for children of all ages and the establishment of the Literacy, Health, and Reconstruction Development Corps, whose mission was to improve the quality of life throughout the provinces, raise productivity, eradicate illiteracy, and facilitate the transition from an outdated system to a market economy.59 The Literacy Corps (Sepah-e Danesh), designed to combat rampant illiteracy in rural areas, was composed of male urban middle class high school graduates who were given the option of serving as instructors in lieu of a two-year mandatory military service. The corpsmen’s various duties were not limited to instruction, and they included health and hygiene instruction as well as large-scale development projects throughout the provinces.60
Established in 1968, and also part of the White Revolution, Women’s Social Services (Khadamat-e Ejtemai-ye Zanan) led to the formation of the Female Literacy Corps. Similar to the roles performed by their male counterparts, young urban women were recruited to advise and instruct the rural female population. They wore European-style mili
tary uniforms, reinforcing a westernized outlook.
Member of the Female Literacy Corps—c.1970.
Although the Corps became instrumental in the Pahlavi regime’s quest to reduce illiteracy and establish a modern nation state, it proved incapable of altering the conventional religious mind-set of a large segment of the population. Despite the fact that government statistics reflected increased educational facilities and enrollment, a considerable number of families beholden to traditional norms continued to feel that it was inappropriate to send girls over the age of ten or eleven to schools that had by then become predominantly coeducational.61 Aware of this reality, Corps members resorted to various strategies, ranging from Koranic recitations and daily prayers to the separation of boys and girls in the classroom, but to no avail.62 During what effectively constituted an era of unprecedented transformation, the implementation of new measures increasingly provoked the wrath of the clergy who regarded such trespasses on their authority as unconstitutional and a violation of the principles of Sharia.
In direct contrast to rural areas, the impact of radical educational reform became exceedingly apparent among the urban female population, where the percentage of girls attending primary school increased from 34 percent in 1966 to 42 percent in 1977.63
The move toward adopting a more Western philosophy within the academic system required revisions in primary and secondary textbooks. The objective was to ensure that both text and image reflected the monarchy’s vision of a modernized, predominantly secular society, with few religious features.64
EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY
Sociologists regard the early years of education, including what is communicated via elementary textbooks, as a vital component of a child’s socialization. Socialization is a term used by sociologists, anthropologists, social psychologists and other professionals to refer to the process by which an individual learns the norms, customs, and ideologies that will provide her or him with the skills and habits necessary for participating in his or her particular society. It is widely acknowledged by child development experts that the period in a young person’s life between the ages of seven and twelve is when an important phase of this process takes place and core values are instilled.
Sociologist Daniel Coleman confirms that the preadolescent years (ages seven to twelve) are when children begin to exhibit “more realistic views of life as opposed to the intense fantasy-oriented world of earliest childhood,” fortified by a more mature, sensible, and realistic perception of behavioral conduct.65 This age group is distinguished as the initial stage when a child begins to develop a pronounced sense of the future along with a more formulated moral compass.66 The structured learning environment of elementary school is considered to be a child’s earliest means of perceiving the world beyond the realm of the household.67
Emile Durkheim, the father of sociology and architect of modern social sciences, underscores the vital role education plays in instilling society’s values. He specifically focused his studies on the socialization of the younger generation in the school system and concluded:
Education is the action exercised by the adult generation over those that are not yet ready for social life. Its purpose is to arouse and develop in the child a certain number of intellectual and moral states which are demanded of him by both the political society as a whole and by the specific environment for which he is particularly destined.68
In terms of the Shah’s sweeping plans for Iran, he and his education advisors recognized that one of the most effective ways of transforming a society is to instill new values in its youngest citizens. Children tend to model their behavior after their parents, but they are also introduced to role models at school—and their earliest schoolbooks are an integral part of that role-modeling process.
As one of the hallmarks of early childhood socialization, the elementary school textbooks (grades 1–5) used during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi were analyzed in order to determine the extent to which they portrayed the monarchy’s gender ideology. The term gender ideology refers to attitudes regarding the appropriate and expected roles and obligations of men and women in a given society, which are often reflective of the doctrines of the ruling regime.69 A “traditional” gender ideology emphasizes the distinctive roles assigned to both sexes based on presumed innate differences, with men as breadwinners and women as homemakers and principal caregivers within the family unit. In direct contrast, an “egalitarian” philosophy regarding the family endorses shared gender responsibility both in the private and public domain.70
Were the Shah’s visions of westernized Iranian women reflected in the elementary textbooks employed during his administration? What unspoken messages were communicated in the textbook images presented to elementary school students during the Shah’s tenure? How did the colorful illustrations reflect family life, work, careers, and gender roles in mid-twentieth-century Iran?
Given the agenda and the progressive ideology of the Pahlavi regime, perhaps it is no surprise that elementary school textbook illustrations portrayed a westernized lifestyle and perspective, one that the Shah hoped would spread throughout a rapidly changing Iran.
In the Farsi textbooks (grades 1–5) from the late Pahlavi period, men, women, and children are mostly presented in Western attire in a distinctly urban environment. When a classroom is shown, it is usually coeducational and presided over by both male and female teachers. Men and women are portrayed as mothers and wives, fathers and husbands, and teachers. There are occasional images related to farm labor but very few illustrations that depict men and women in either skilled or unskilled professions. Women and young girls are shown performing a variety of domestic-related chores, and in some settings both sons and daughters are shown washing dishes together in the kitchen.71
Family members are shown in activities such as shopping, going to the park, walking to and from school, and visiting the museum.72 Boys and girls appear to be engaged in common activities, and only in rare instances are they playing with gender specific toys such as dolls or trucks.73
Illustrations that reflect a more rural or conservative population are fairly scarce. There are occasional pictures of pastoral settings that depict women in village attire, as well as some images of segregated classrooms and the occasional elderly woman wearing a head scarf.74 But these represent only a small minority of the overall textbook graphics.
The mathematics (Hesab va Hendeseh), social studies (Tarikh va Goghrafi), and science (Ulum) textbooks refrain from distinguishing specific male/female domestic or professional roles. The science books in particular show images of boys and girls equally engaged in a variety of fieldwork and scientific experiments.
On balance, these illustrated textbooks for elementary school students portray a society in which girls and women participate in activities and perform jobs along with their male counterparts. For the most part, the unspoken message seems to be: females are free to have a life outside the home and to engage in pursuits equally with males.
With that said, there was a noted lack of female role models in textbooks of this era. The elementary textbooks of the Pahlavi period failed to reference women in roles other than mothers and teachers. The only female role model depicted or referenced was the Shahbanou (Empress) of Iran and wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.75 From a sociological perspective, this was a missed opportunity. Given that the Shah’s policies favored women’s access to a wide range of occupations, it would seem that educational materials published during his reign should have reflected that ideology. Drawing on the regime’s progressive perspective with regard to the role of women, a more concerted effort should have been made to incorporate into elementary textbooks accomplished Western women, such as chemist Marie Curie, as role models.
Pahlavi-era elementary school textbooks.
MAJOR GAINS—AND SOME LOSSES
The Pahlavis’ core objective was to modernize Iran and improve not only its economy and standing in the world but the quality of life for its
citizens—including women. Education was seen as the primary means to that end. Schools, universities, textbooks, teacher training, and educational policies were brought closer in line with Western standards. The Literacy Corps sent educational emissaries to the rural areas to take a stand against illiteracy. More students, including a small percentage of women, were given the opportunity to study abroad, primarily in the United States. Clearly, thousands of females benefited from these changes. As we’ve seen, however, too many potential female students—those from rural communities and traditional families—could not partake of these new opportunities.
Nevertheless, political stability and improvements in education led to new possibilities for urban women. A surge in the number of women completing a higher education meant increased employment opportunities. New labor laws provided “equal pay for equal work.”76 And the percentage of employed literate women grew from 30 percent in 1966 to 65 percent in 1976, with women comprising 28 percent of civil servants, 30 percent of secondary school teachers, 54 percent of elementary teachers, and 100 percent of kindergarten teachers.77
There were profoundly important changes for women in other spheres of life as well. The 1967 Family Protection Act meant increased autonomy for women and the removal of restrictions in marriage, divorce, and child custody matters. In 1975 the act was augmented to provide additional social and professional benefits to women, including a complete ban on polygamy.78
In her memoir, Faces in the Mirror, the Shah’s twin sister, Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, a leading advocate of women’s rights in Iran, spoke of the impact of the Family Protection Act. Her book provides an enlightening narrative of the challenges entailed in transforming an entrenched way of life and the instrumental role played by the Princess in this process: