One of the first Iranian feminists, Sediqeh Dowlatabadi (1882–1961) was the editor in chief of the magazine Women’s Tongue. The name of the magazine was a subversion of the idea, popular at the time, that women who had “long tongues” and talked back should be punished.
Trans. note: In most of this text we have translated the Farsi term “zabaan”—literally “tongue”—as “voice.” Here, however, we invented the word “tongue-ful” to emphasize how the tongue can become a weapon. The Farsi expression “zaboon dar avordi”—“you have grown a tongue”—is used when someone is deemed disrespectful for speaking out of turn or saying something unwelcome. So being “tongue-ful” means refusing to succumb to the forces that want you to hold your tongue, or that seek to cut it out.
Ruhollah Khomeini, Sahifeh-e Imam: Oassese-ye Tanzim va Nashr Asar-e Imam khomeini (Sahifeh-e Imam: An Anthology of Imam Khomeini’s Speeches, Messages, Interviews, Decrees, Religious Permissions, and Letters) (Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works, 2007), 329.
Trans. note: for more context see →.
A detailed account of the six days of unrest can be found in Mahnaz Matin and Nasser Mohajer, Iranian Women’s Uprising, March 8, 1979, vol. 1 and 2 (Noghteh, 2013 and 2010).
Trans. note: the literal translation of this term is “tyrant” but at the time it was used as a shorthand for the Shah’s government, an “earthly tyranny” that did not follow the rule of God.
Trans. note: broadly known as “the Basij.”
Speech given at the Qom Feyziyeh School, March 7, 1979.
Khomeini, Sahifeh-e Imam, 118.
Trans. note: In traditional Persian houses, the pastoo is a closed-off, hidden space (usually behind a larger room) where food is stored. Resembling a small pantry or closet, it is used exclusively by women.
Trans. note: for an in-depth discussion of the Constitutional Revolution—a complex turning point in Iranian history—see →.
Mirzadeh Eshghi, Koliyat-e Mosavar-e Mirzadeh Eshghi (The complete Mirzadeh Eshghi illustrated collection), ed. Mashir Salimi and Ali Akbar (Amir Kabir, 1979).
Gholamreza Salami and Afsaneh Najmabadi, Nehzat-e Nesvan-e Shargh (Eastern women’s congress) (Shiraz, 2011).
Afsaneh Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards (University of California Press, 2005), 181–206.
Shirin Nabavi, Intellectuals and the State in Iran: Politics, Discourse, and the Dilemma of Authenticity (University Press of Florida, 2003), 123–95.
Trans. note: The title of the book in Farsi is Gharbzadegi, which, according to Liora Hendelman-Baavur, can be translated into English in various ways: “Occidentosis,” “Westernism,” “Occidentalization,” “Weststruckness,” “West-strickenness,” “Westities,” “Xenomania,” “Westomania,” and “Euromania.” She states, however, that “by far the predominant translation in English references” is “Westoxication.” Hendelman-Baavur, “The Odyssey of Jalal Al-Ahmad’s Gharbzadegi – Five Decades After,” in Persian Language, Literature and Culture: New Leaves, Fresh Looks, ed. Kamran Talattof (Routledge, 2015), 260. The translation of Al-e Ahmad’s book quoted in the present essay uses the term “Occidentosis.”
Al-e Ahmad, Occidentosis: A Plague from the West, trans. Roger Campbell (2004), 70 →.
Al-e Ahmad, Occidentosis, 96.
Reza Barahani, Tarikh-e Mozakar (Masculine history: A thesis on cultural dispersion in Iran) (Nashr-e Aval, 1963).
Haqiqat, no. 81 (June 23, 1980), 4. Trans. note: “haqiqat” means “truth.”
Morteza Motahari, Masale-ye Hjab (The question of hijab) (Sadra Publishing, 2000), 85, 93. Trans. note: for “tongue-fully” see footnote 2.
Quoted in Matin and Mohajer, Iranian Women’s Uprising, March 8, 1979, vol. 2.
Ketab-e Jom’e, no. 30 (March 8, 1980), 14. Trans. note: “SAVAK” is an acronym for “Sazman-e Ettela’at va Amniyat-e Keshvar,” or “Organization of National Security and Information.” It was a loathed and violent government department chiefly responsible for creating an atmosphere of fear and repression, with moles infiltrating all layers of society.
Quoted in Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Hijab va Roshanfekran (The hijab and intellectuals) (Nasher Moallef, 2011), 165.
Khorasani, Hijab, 160; and Haideh Moghissi, Populism and Feminism in Iran (Macmillan, 1996).
Kar (Labor), no. 16 (May 1979).
Translated from the Farsi by Niloufar Nematollahi. Translation edited by Soori Parsa.