ABSTRACT
Contrast this statement with an incident in Isfahan over thirty years ago and one can visualize the change in mentality in Iran, which means a journey from the Middle Ages to a modem world. In 1898 a commission for public instruction was formed in Isfahan to open national schools for boys. In spite of systematic opposition by the mollahs, who resented the influence of the State, boys’ schools were opened. A few timid members of the commission suggested establishing girls’ schools also, but were overruled. Then one of the advocates o f education for girls wrote a primary school text-book containing a simple little story that caused great excitement. A schoolboy, Ali Mohammed, comes home from school and tells his father about his progress and promotion to the next class. His little sister Melik hearing this, sighs and says “ Oh, if only we could have a school!” The mollahs finding this apparently harmless story in the text-book, stirred up a great agitation; the extremists even counselled cutting off the right hand of the writer. How ever, nothing happened-except the slow germination of the idea. To-day the sisters of the Ali Mohammeds all over Iran are in school. The transition from the fanaticism of 1898, which opposed education for girls as a menace to society, and the liberalism of 1936, which votes in the Majlis for the promotion of girls’ education, represents very clearly the change in Iran’s national outlook during that period.
