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 Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in between 27 November and 2 December 1932. It was the second international conference to unite women's organizations of the Middle East, following the First Eastern Women's Congress.

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The conference was arranged with royal support by Iran's leading women's rights organisation

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 ...

, under the leadership of

Ashraf Pahlavi Ashraf ol-Molouk Pahlavi (, , 26 October 1919 – 7 January 2016) was the twin sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran (Persia), and a member of the Pahlavi dynasty. She was considered the "power behind her brother" and was instru ...

, with participants from the Arab World and Eastern Asia.

served as the honorary president of the Congress 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 ...

as its secretary. Šayḵ-al-Molk Owrang of Lebanon served as its President, and Fāṭema Saʿīd Merād of Syria, Ḥonayna Ḵūrīya of Egypt and Mastūra Afšār of Persia belonged to the organization committee. Representatives from Afghanistan, Australia, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Lebanon, Persia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Zanzibar participated in the Congress. The congress discussed the situation of women in their respective countries, and debated issues were the particularly bad situation of women in the Muslim world, specifically the illiteracy and the oppression within marriage of women. The congress approved of a resolution with 22 subjects, recommending reforms family law,

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

, women's suffrage, a ban against polygamy and prostitution and access to education, work and equal salary for women and the eradication of illiteracy among female adults. It was followed by the Third Eastern Women's Congress in Baghdad.Bonnie G. Smith:
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History
'

References

1932 conferences 1932 in Iran Events in Tehran Women's suffrage Women's conferences 1932 in women's history 20th century in Iran Women in Iran 20th century in Tehran November 1932 in Asia December 1932 in Asia

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See also

References