Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (Articles) WWW.IICHS.ORG Cultural Institutions of Iran under Reza Shah’s Reign
Vida Hamraz The years between 1925 and 1945 might be considered as the most important and critical years of The establishment of dictatorship, encouragement of ancient centered nationalism, keeping distance from the Islamic values and support of the western culture were the main features of Reza Shah’s cultural policy which were carried out through taking recourse to force. In this regard, many centers were established and many regulations were built to give speed to the projects. Simultaneous with the European style modernization, the main pivot of the changes were the establishment of absolute political system, and encouragement of exaggerated ancient oriented nationalism while stress was being put on the uniqueness of Arian race. The socio political “reforms” of that period were carried out with a look to the realization of those goals. Modernization, as the basis of Reza Shah’s cultural policies, had already begun in 1. Making of nonreligious laws and renewal of ministry of justice; 2. Encouragement of uniform and European costumes; 3. Women’s removal of veil; 4. Establishment of modern educational system The forming of Due to the dominance of Islamic culture, the removal of veils was not that easy they had thought of. So the government of the time focused on the formation of societies and centers. In June 1935, the |