The Iranian girl schools

Nilufar Kasra

 

Prior to the constitutionalism, there was no school for girl students in Iran. The commoners had in their head that education is not admirable for girls, and girls going to school will damage their dignity. The families who believed in the education of their daughters, would prefer to have tutors to teach them.

 

After the constitutionalism, there were some talks among Majlis deputies regarding the foundation of schools. Some of them including Nazem-ol-Eslam supported the idea of establishing schools for girls. In his reply, Mirza Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq, the principal of Islam school said that since there is no regular police, the single young men would cause trouble to for them. Moreover there were no female teachers, so first of all they should train female teachers.

 

The first girl school was founded by Bibi Khanum Vazirof in 1906. This event was faced by many objections. Following this, Bibi Khanum referred to the ministry of education to complain, but in reply, they said that it was advisable to close the school. After the bombardement of Majlis, Bibi Khanum met Sani-od-dewleh, then the minister of education. This time her request was admitted provided that only girls between 4 to 6 years old were accepted, and the word girl be dropped from the board of the school.

 

Namus school

This school was founded by Tuba Azmudeh in Farmanfarma St. near to HassanAbad crossroad in 1905. At first she founded adults school for women. Then she added the study of Qoran, religious teachings and quotations from the Holy prophet. Mirza Hassan Roshdieh, Nassiroddowleh and Adiboddowleh helped her in this affair.

 

Parvaresh school

In 1903 Tuba Roshdieh founded the girl school of Parvaresh in a separate part of her house. A few days later she had 17 students. However the government officials objected to the foundation of the school and its closure became inevitable.

 

Up to this time all these schools were not official, though sometimes they were supported by some Majlis or government members.

 

In 1909 all Tehran primary schools were put under the control of ministry of education, and 46 schools were founded for girls and boys.