Eftekhar Belarashk

In late Qajar period, subsequent to Qajar Shahs' travels to Europe and their being impressed by western civilization, an aura of modernism was gradually increasing in the court until when the Pahlavi regime established in Iran and provided the grounds for it. On his return from Turkey, Reza Shah had decided to make a law for the removal of veils and in June 1935 asked the cabinet to introduce instructions to change kepi hat to Panama hat and remove the veils of women. He announced the general removal of veils in January 7^th 1935 and named it women's freedom day.

The available records relate to the period between 1935 and 1942, and are indicative of the opposition of people in Lar, Haris, Yazd, Meshed and Kermanshah and the government policies to persecute those who disobeyed the rule. They even suspended those authorities whose wives refuse to attend the ceremonies without veil and closed the opponent newspapers. Meanwhile some groups including "The Young Followers of Koran" and personalities such as Seyyed Mohammad Kamarehee asked the speaker of majlis, Hassan Esfandiari to withhold permission to such doings, and insisted on more regards for Islamic rules.