Princess Ashraf Pahlavi - Lifting the Veil

The Day the veil was dropped in Iran

1934 - Above the Queen of Iran followed by daughters
Princess Shams (right) and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi
Below is an Account by Princess Ashraf in her book "Faces in a Mirror".

                   Reza Shah was determined to “Westernize” Persia, to
                    bring it into the twentieth century, since it was in the West
                    that he saw the most dynamic expressions of prosperity and
                    power. To do this, to make us prosperous and powerful, he
                    could not afford to leave our Women, half of Persia’s small
                    population, inactive and covered. He decided to abolish the
                    chador, the traditional veil. Here again was an example of the
                    paradox that was my father. Though I never felt he was
                    willing to relax his strict control over us at home, he did
                    make the historic decision to present the Queen, my sister
                    Shams, and me, unveiled, to the population of Teheran. To
                    Reza Shah, as to any Persian man, anything concerning his
                    wife and family was a private matter. You could sooner ask
                    him how much money he earned or how much his house
                    cost before you could ask personal questions about his wife
                    or daughters. At home my father was very much a man of an
                    earlier generation (I remember he ordered me to change my
                    clothes “at once” because I had appeared at lunch in a
                    sleeveless dress). But as the king, he was prepared to put
                    aside his strong personal feelings in the interest of bringing
                    progress to his country.

When he had made his decision, he came to us and
said, “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I must
ask you to serve as an example for other Persian women.” My
mother, my sister Shams, and I were to take part in a
ceremony at the new Teheran Teacher’s College and we were
to do so unveiled. In the winter of 1934 the people saw, for
the first time, what the Queen and her daughters looked
like.
After this ceremony, all women were required to re-
move their veils, and those who refused were forced to do
so. My father knew that he could build schools and create
employment opportunities for women, but he also knew that
these measures would be useless unless women were
pushed out of their cloistered environment. Women were
going to enter the mainstream of society—de gré ou de force.
After our public appearance, my father had our photo-
graphs published in the newspapers. When one mullah
publicly condemned the Shah for allowing the women of his
family to show their faces, one of my father’s generals
responded with an equally public gesture: he pulled the
turban (the symbol of his religious office) from the clergy-
man’s head and then shaved his beard. My father was always
a deeply religious man, but he realized that many of the
practices and customs that contributed to Persia’s backward
condition were relics of social traditions and not fundamental
to the religion of Islam.
                                              
        

Back to Albums | Back to Index