ABSTRACT
The late Qajar period that saw the establishment of the BahÇ¥ community in Iran also saw the beginnings of a change in the social role of women in Iranian society. The first inkling of this was the BÇb¥ heroine, ˝Çhirih (Qurrat al-Ayn, 1817-50), who set an example of leadership and independent action that became a model for Iranian women generally.2 After her, there was something of an intermission until the last decade of the nineteenth century. During the protests associated with the Tobacco Regie (1891-2), women played an important part, forcing shops to close and even confronting the Prince Governor of Tehran, KÇmrÇn M¥rzÇ.3 One of the first publications voicing women’s dissatisfaction with the status quo was B¥b¥ KhÇnum AstarÇbÇd¥’s book, Maåyib al-rijål (‘The Vices of Men’, written in 1896).4 During the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-6, many informal women’s meeting were turned into formal secret societies where reform was discussed.5 But when the Constitution was eventually established, women were ignored in it. They were not given the vote or any real amelioration of their social position. Many women now turned their attention to education, and the following decade saw the establishment of many girls’ schools.
