Kanoun-e-Banovan ('Ladies’ Center') was an Iranian women's rights organization, founded on 14 October 1935. It played an important part in the

Kashf-e hijab On 8 January 1936, Reza Shah of Iran (Persia) issued a decree known as ''Kashf-e hijab'' (also Romanized as and , ) banning all Islamic veils (including hijab and chador), an edict that was swiftly and forcefully implemented. Hoodfar, Homa (fall ...

reform against compulsory hijab (veiling).Hamideh Sedghi, “FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iii. IN THE PAHLAVI PERIOD,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, IX/5, pp. 492-498, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/feminist-movements-iii (accessed on 30 December 2012). In 1932, the

Second Eastern Women's Congress Second Eastern Women's Congress, also known as Second General Congress of Oriental Women and Second Oriental Women's Congress was an international women's conference which took place in Tehran in Iran in between 27 November and 2 December 1932. It ...

was organized by the leading women's rights organization

Jam'iyat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah Jam'iyat-e Nesvân-e Vatankhâh () active from 1922 to 1933, was one of the most effective organizations in the Women's rights movement in Iran that formed after the Persian Constitutional Revolution. History The Society was set up in 1922 unde ...

with state support. After the Congress was over, however, the organization was dissolved. The Iranian royal regime wished to support women's rights, since it was regarded as a vital part of their modernization program; however, it wanted to have control over the women's movement. In 1935, minister Ali-Asghar Hekmat called upon the leading veteran women's rights activists of the Iranian women's rights movement and offered them to start a new women's rights organization with state support, and they accepted the offer. Hajar Tarbiat became the President of the organization, and a number of prominent feminists became members of the organization, among them Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri and

Sediqeh Dowlatabadi Sediqeh Dowlatabadi ( ; 1882 in Isfahan – July 30, 1961 in Tehran) was an Iranian Feminism, feminist activist and journalism, journalist and one of the pioneering figures in the Persian women's movement. On one of the occasions when Dowlatabadi ...

Farrokhroo Parsa Farrokhroo Parsa (; 24 March 1922 – 8 May 1980) was an Iranian physician, educator, and parliamentarian. She served as minister of education under Amir Abbas Hoveida and was the first female cabinet minister. Parsa was an outspoken supporter ...

and

Parvin E'tesami Rakhshandeh E'tesami (, ''Raḵšanda Eʿteṣāmī''; 17 March 1907 – 4 April 1941), better known as Parvin E'tesami (), was a 20th-century Iranian Persian language, Persian poet. Life Parvin E'tesami was born on 17 March 1907 in Tabriz to M ...

. The organization launched a campaign against the Islamic veil, and promoted its abolition. This campaign prepared the ground for the abolition of veiling which was being prepared by the royal government. In 1934, the regime had already banned the veil among female teachers in girls' school, and in 1935, female students were encouraged to unveil. The same year, the Kanoun-e-Banovan was founded with state support and campaigned for unveiling. The members of the organization, consisting mainly of educated middle and upper class women, already supported unveiling, and its members attended at their meetings unveiled. When the regime finally launched the public unveiling and abolition of the veil through the

reform in 1936, the Kanoun-e-Banovan participated as one of its more public supporters of the reform.P. Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran, Cambridge, U.K., 1995. In 1937, it was transformed in to an institute for welfare and social services. Kanoun-e-Banovan played an important role in incorporating the Iranian women's movement in to the Iranian state and securing its continuing existence during the Pahlavi era. In 1959, all Iranian women's groups were formally incorporated in to the High Council of Women's Organizations of Iran, from 1966 known as the

Women's Organization of Iran The Women's Organization of Iran (WOI; ) was a non-profit organization created in 1966, mostly run by volunteers, with local branches and centers for women all over the country, determined to enhance the rights of women in Iran. The WOI had commit ...

, who managed the state feminism supported as women's policy during the Pahlavi era.

References

{{reflist 1935 establishments in Iran Feminist organisations in Iran Women's rights movement in Iran Organizations established in 1935 Pahlavi Iran Hijab