Tuba Azmudeh (; 1878–1936) was an Iranian educator who established the first school for girls in

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 1907. She maintained and expanded the school, despite continuous opposition from her community.

Early life

Azmudeh married an officer in the army when she was fourteen. Her husband supported her continued education, which she pursued both independently and with the help of language tutors.

Namus School

In 1907 or 1911, a group of women met 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. ...

to discuss and work towards improving the education of girls in Iran. At the time, girls were not usually educated outside of their homes. Though a small number of schools for girls had been opened by foreigners as early as 1874, the Iranian government did not allow

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

girls to attend schools until 1896. After this meeting, Azmudeh opened the first Iranian school for girls in Iran, called the Namus School (after

Namus The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a national clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases throughout the United States. NamUs is funded and administered by the National Inst ...

, roughly honor). She ran the school in her home in Tehran, where she taught twenty girls. As it was not a state-run school, Azmudeh was responsible for protecting it herself. She and her pupils received considerable criticism from the community and the government. Her pupils were criticized for studying outside of their own homes, and accused of being prostitutes. Azmudeh continuously received threats, both to her life and to the school, and was denigrated as immoral. The Namus School expanded in size and curriculum, and Azmudeh eventually brought in her husband and friends to help teach. The school eventually achieved some prestige, and progressive Iranians began to send their daughters to study there. Azmudeh later began to also offer literacy classes to adult women.

Legacy

Azmudeh has been credited for inspiring other female educators in Iran. A number of her pupils later studied to become

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

teachers themselves. The name of Namus School was later changed to Shahnaz High School.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azmudeh, Tuba 1878 births 1936 deaths 20th-century Iranian educators Iranian educators Iranian women educators Iranian women's rights activists People from Tehran