B151871 The 1936 Kashf-e Hijab 1

B151871
Modern Middle Eastern History A: Domestic Transformation and International Challenges
Dr Anthony Gorman
Essay #1 Question 7
01 November 2021

The 1936 Kashf-e Hijab

Should Reza Shah’s policies regarding the position of women in Iranian society be regarded as
emancipatory or oppressive?

Iran in the 1930s under Reza Shah saw a scramble for modernisation through economic, social,
cultural, and legislative reforms. Many of his plans for said reforms presented a vision that matched
and imitated European modern society. This included set ideals for women’s reform and their
integration into a modern society, distanced from a previous traditional Islamic society of Iran.
This essay will explore how Reza Shah’s policies for familial law, women’s education and
integrated participation in Iranian social and economic spheres can be regarded as emancipatory,
however, his policies for an image of western-style modernised Iran such as the unveiling decree,
the prominence of control of women’s image and their consequences on women and their identity,
can be regarded as deep-rooted in patriarchy, therefore, oppressive.

Reza Shah’s policies for women’s education, his plans for their integration into society, and marital
legislations can be seen as emancipatory. Before the early twentieth century, marital norms in
Iranian society were threatening to women1. Venereal diseases, polygamy, temporary wives, and
child marriages all presented harmful to the bride. During the time of the Constitutional Revolution
in Iran, from 1905 till 1911, women advocated for marriage reforms through women-specific
journals and noted the hypocrisy of men, who preached for good behaviour, yet were unjust towards
their wives2. However, such demands did not see any progress until the Reza Shah’s legislative
reforms. The first Iranian Civil Code passed in the Majlis in 1928 drastically changed family laws,
and the 1931 Marriage Act Law and the 1938 Law for Production of the Medical Certificate further
protected women and girls in their marriage3. These laws concerned the marriage age of girls and
1
Jasmin Rostom-Kolayi, “Expanding Agendas for the ‘New’ Iranian Woman: Family Law, Work, and Unveiling,” in
The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941, ed. Stephanie Cronin (Abingdon, Oxon:
Taylor & Francis Group, 2003), 166.
2
Janet Afary, “On the Origins of Feminism in Early 20th-Century Iran,” Journal of Women's History 1 (1989): 75
3
Rostom-Koloyi, “Expanding Agendas for the ‘New’ Iranian Woman,” 168.
B151871 The 1936 Kashf-e Hijab 2
boys, the consent of both parties, and requirements for divorce. Additionally, the requirement for a
medical certificate from men before marriage helped brides prevent venereal diseases. Although
polygamy and temporary marriages were not explicitly outlawed, the new civil code presented
limitations to such marital affairs4. The protection of women from the harms of marriage presents a
better position of women in Iran under Reza Shah. Other reforms for women included better
education as well as better access to education. In Reza Shah’s understanding of modernity, women
had to be more present in society. This meant a change of dress to allow inclusion in the public. The
unveiling decree called for all women to appear without the veil in public and to better integrate
women in Iranian public life5. By abandoning the veil, women are equal, or closer to being equal, to
men in public life, as it reduces gender segregation and allowed for social mobility6. The
standardisation of the school curricula and the opening of more non-sex segregated public schools
and colleges created increased access to education, and therefore, social mobility7. Women were
also encouraged to pursue higher education and find jobs in fields of management and teaching; in
the same way the modern European women did8. All these reforms emancipated women and
elevated them into a better, more modern, position in Iran. However, Reza Shah’s need for the
image of women to be ‘modern’ showcases layers of patriarchal oppressive undertones.

Reza Shah’s need for a picturesque modern Iran presented itself as control over Iranian women and
their education. Firstly, the unveiling decree, modern schools, and women’s participation were
massively opposed by the ulama, battling over how women must be presented in society by and for
men9. Reza Shah and the state wanted to achieve a ‘standardised version’ of women and their
image, unveiled and European in style10. State propaganda presented modern and educated Iranian
women as pilots or sportswomen almost as if in competition with the achievements of western
women11. Education and unveiling were presented to better integrate women into the social and
economic sphere of Iranian society through propaganda by Reza Shah’s state, however, societal
norms of education for women were still domestically charged, with school curricula ‘simplified’
for girls and focused on aspects of social etiquette and homemaking12. These traditional notions

4
Ibid, 169.
5
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, Conceiving Citizens: Women and the Politics of Motherhood in Iran. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press USA, 2011), 157.
6
Rostom-Koloyi, “Expanding Agendas,” 152.
7
Hamideh Sedghi, Women and Politics in Iran: Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2007), 62
8
Rostom-Koloyi, “Expanding Agendas,” 172.
9
Afary, “On the Origins of Feminism,” 71.
10
Camron Michael Amin, “Propaganda and Remembrance: Gender, Education, and “The Women's Awakening” of
1936,” Iranian Studies 32 (1999): 351-2.
11
Ibid, 361.
12
Ibid, 366.
B151871 The 1936 Kashf-e Hijab 3
were backed by the Ulama13 but also by the Shah’s wife when she claimed that a woman’s priority
is ‘raising upright children for the country’14. Because of such, women’s education in comparison to
those of their male peers was ‘lesser’ and presented as a challenge when seeking higher education in
Iranian colleges15. However yet, an educated, modern woman was not concerned with such ideals of
homemaking, but Iranian society demanded so, and an Iranian woman’s full development into a
‘modern’ woman mismatched the nurturing woman, deeming Iranian woman as inferior to a
western woman regardless of their efforts16. The unveiling decree opposed by the Ulama, as stated
earlier, also presented challenges for women. Government employees were required to bring their
unveiled wives to official events, and if they needed to buy westernized clothes, official loans were
set up17. Furthermore, female students struggled to attend non-sex segregated schools and colleges
because of traditional ideas of modesty imposed by the patriarch of the family18. Women who did
attend college were officially stated to mix with male students, yet would be shunned if they did, by
society as well as by the male students19. Additionally, women who chose to keep covered with the
veil in public faced harassment threats by the police, which led to less participation in public20.
Therefore, women’s position in society under Reza Shah was contested by the opinions of men: the
king himself, the clergy, heads of families, and male peers in schools, and the civil service. The
patriarchal need for the image of women to fit certain standards to support can be understood as
oppressive. Moreover, Reza Shah’s policies for women can also be guised under nation-building
towards a European style image which messed with perceptions of women’s Iranian identities.

Secondly, Reza Shah and his policies reflect western ideals, not in line with those of the pre-
existing culture of Iranian women. As stated earlier, propaganda supported western views of a
modern woman in a modern state. Orientalist views of Iran presented the country, its religion and
society as ‘backwards’ and while upper-class Iranians travelled to Europe and adopted European
thought, the states of Turkey and Iran fell victim to race for the achievement of modernisation 21.
This included cultural reforms like the unveiling decree, but also included reforms of the urban
space to rid of any ideas of religion and gender segregation22. In the race for modernisation, Reza

13
Shireen Mahdavi, “Reza Shah Pahlavi and Women: A Re-evaluation,” in The Making of Modern Iran: State and
Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941, ed, Stephanie Cronin. (Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2003), 197.
14
Alam-i Zanan, 1944, in Kashani-Sabet, “Convincing Citizens”, 145.
15
Amin, “Propaganda and Remembrance”, 374-5.
16
Ibid, 380.
17
H.E. Chehabi, ‘The Banning of the Veil and its Consequences,’ in The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society
under Riza Shah, 1921-1941, ed, Stephanie Cronin. (Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2003), 212.
18
Amin, “Propaganda”, 371.
19
Ibid, 381.
20
Kashani-Sabet, “Convincing Citizens”, 158.
21
H.E Chehabi, “Staging the Emperor’s New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation-Building under Reza Shah,” Iranian
Studies 26 (1993): 209-10, 215.
22
Sana Chavoshian, “Secular Atmospheres: Unveiling and Urban Space in Early 20th Century Iran”, Historical Social
Research 44, (2019): 180-205.
B151871 The 1936 Kashf-e Hijab 4
Shah adopted an authoritarian style regime under the guise of progress. His regime banned all
women’s organisations and activist groups and only instated committees and journals that supported
the modernist secular view23. The performative propaganda, state censorship and ‘manipulating
gender issues’ of pre-instated bodily and urban gender segregation presented Reza Shah with a false
sense of legitimacy when women did not have a choice on what was mandated upon them24. This
oppressive nature of the position of women and their image in Reza Shah’s Iran also forgot to
acknowledge the reality of women.

Finally, this ideal-type woman was so far removed from the average woman of the country.
Although upper-class women in Iran supported and advocated for the unveiling decree and abolition
of spatial segregation, the forceful nature of the movement of the state stole from most rural women
their power, safety, and identity25. By having to unveil, rural women were losing a sense of what
they had always known, and by choosing not to, they had to give up their safety and participation in
society as lower-middle-class and lower-income societies already incorporated women in the urban
spaces, unlike upper-class and western notions of the idle Middle Eastern women in harems.26
Conversely, the women who did participate in Reza Shah’s reforms by unveiling and attaining
education felt like they were moving away from their Muslim Iranian identity and forming a hybrid
of a not-quite western self-sustenance27. Therefore, Reza Shah’s policies on the position of women
in Iranian society can be regarded as oppressive and harmful.

In conclusion, the patriarchal undertones for the control of women image during Reza Shah’s
‘Women’s Awakening’ reforms present women’s position in Iranian society as oppressive. There is
no doubt that greater access to education and society through unveiling in urban forms along with
legislations for better conditions of marriage did present emancipation for some women. However,
the push to abandon the veil and present women as ‘modern’ in society stemmed from ideas of
Orientalist western views of the Islamic Middle East, as Reza Shah’s modernisation movement
craved Iranian society as European in image. This, in turn, affected women’s freedom of choice and
their notions of identity. Additionally, the forceful nature of the unveiling movement led to
increased harassment of women who opposed unveiling, especially those from lower-income
sectors of society.

Word count: 1783

Afary, Janet. ‘On the Origins of Feminism in Early 20th-Century Iran’. Journal of Women's History
1, no. 2, (1989): 65-87. DOI: 10.1353/jowh.2010.0007.

Amin, Camron Michael. ‘Propaganda and Remembrance: Gender, Education, and “The Women's
Awakening” of 1936’. Iranian Studies 32, no. 3 (1999): 351-386.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4311268.

Chavoshian, Sana. ‘Secular Atmospheres: Unveiling and Urban Space in Early 20th Century Iran.’
Historical Social Research 44, no. 3 (169) (2019): 180-205. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26747454.

Chehabi, H.E. ‘Staging the Emperor’s New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation-Building under Reza
Shah.’ Iranian Studies 26, no. 3/4 (1993): 209-29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310854.

Chehabi, H.E. ‘The Banning of the Veil and its Consequences.’ in The Making of Modern Iran:
State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941, edited by Stephanie Cronin, 203-221. Abingdon,
Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2003.

Golley, Nawar Al-Hassan. ‘Is Feminism Relevant to Arab Women?’. Third World Quarterly 25, no.
3 (2004): pp. 521-536. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3993823.

Hoodfar, Homa. ‘The Veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: Veiling Practices and Muslim
Women.’ In: Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader, edited by Elizabeth A. Castelli, 420-446. New
York: Palgrave, 2001.

Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh. Conceiving Citizens: Women and the Politics of Motherhood in Iran.
Oxford: Oxford University Press USA, 2011.

Mahdavi, Shireen. ‘Reza Shah Pahlavi and Women: A Re-evaluation.’ in The Making of Modern
Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941, edited by Stephanie Cronin, 190-202.
Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2003.

Rostam-Kolayi, Jasmin. ‘Expanding Agendas for the ‘New’ Iranian Woman: Family Law, Work,
and Unveiling.’ in The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941,
edited by Stephanie Cronin, 164-189. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis Group, 2003.

Sedghi, Hamideh. Women and Politics in Iran: Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007.