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Women Mojahedin Transforming the Urban Public Spaces in Tabriz during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911
Abstract
Zeinab Pasha was a leading woman revolutionary fighter (mojahid) in the early 20th century, with prior record of participation in public social and political protests dating back to the late 19th century. During the Iranian civil war of 1908-1909, she organized a group of armed women mojahids in the city of Tabriz against the Qajar autocracy. Her participation in street protests and, later on, also in armed conflicts presents us with an historical example that is in stark contrast to the established assumption of separate gendered spheres and such social practices as gender segregation in crowded public spaces during the Qajar and early Pahlavi periods. In this presentation, I will examine how political upheavals in Tabriz during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution led to transformations in socially accepted gendered agency that, in turn, transformed gender norms and practices in urban public spaces and spheres. For instance, the first girls’ school was established in the city. I will also discuss the specific neighborhoods and the social class background of the women participating in public political activities in Tabriz. I will discuss urban factors contributing to their ability to engage in public social and political action, and the ways in which these women negotiated their way around the existing gender norms vis-à-vis the male political actors in the city and contributed to open new spaces for women in education, health caring and more to complicate the national historiography of the revolutions. My main primary sources for this study will include Karim Taher Zadeh’s eyewitness account of events Azarbaijan’s revolt in the Iranian constitutional revolution. Other account is our sisters and daughter by Ahmad Kasravi. Also, unpublished documents in the Edward Granville Browne collection at the Cambridge University Library, like letters and the constitutionalist newspapers published in the city at the time, such as Anjuman will be taken into account.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries