ABSTRACT
Zahra Sadat Mirmo‘meni, a female principal of a women’s seminary, provides the following testimonial:
The 1979 Islamic Revolution brought me a golden opportunity. During the Pahlavi era, the practice of wearing a hijab wasn’t observed in school. My father, who was a cleric, didn’t like school, and neither did I. In those days, girls who wore tight scarves faced difficulties at school. However, since the revolution, we have not had to worry about wearing a hijab. I completed sikl (the lower secondary school course) and then joined the seminary Jame‘at al-Zahra soon after it was established. There, I studied up to Level 3 (which is equivalent to a master’s degree). I had also completed my high school education during the summer when I had no classes at the seminary. I was at Jame‘at al-Zahra for more than 15 years—first as a student and later as a professor.
Mirmo‘meni heads ‘Abdol ‘Azim Women’s Seminary (howzeh-ye ‘elmiyyeh-ye khaharan-e hazrat-e ‘Abdol ‘Azim) in Ray—to the south of the Greater Tehran metropolitan area—which is home to about 370 students. 1 In addition, she has been attending dars-e kharej (lit., beyond the text—the most advanced level of study at a seminary) conducted by Ayatollah Khamene’i (1939–), who is the current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Dars-e kharej is conducted at Ayatollah Khamene’i’s office three times a week, in the mornings from 7:00 am to 8:00 am for the students studying to become mojtaheds, that is, persons authorized to interpret religious laws according to their own judgment. Undoubtedly, Mirmo‘meni represents a successful woman of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although she is highly esteemed among female religious experts, she has not yet been acknowledged as a mojtahed. Considering that most professors in male seminaries are mojtaheds, the difference between Mirmo‘meni and these professors is even more pronounced.