Born: 1895 (Tehran, Iran)
Died: 1924 (Tehran, Iran)
Biography:
Mohtaram Eskandari (Persian: محترم اسكندری; 1895 July 27, 1924), was an Iranian intellectual and a pioneer of the Iranian women’s movement. She was the co-founder and first leader of Jam’iyat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah, the first women’s rights association in Persia. As the first chairperson and publisher of the Nesvan Watan Khaw newspaper, Eskandari provided lectures in support of women’s rights, including women’s education and the removal of veils. She planned marches for members of the association as well.
Mohtaram was born in 1895 into a liberal, intellectually vibrant, and politically active family in Tehran. Her father, Mohammad Ali Mirza Eskandari (Prince of Ali Khan), was a constitutionalist and founder of the Adamiat Society and taught at Dar ul-Funun. She first studied at home with her father and received an education in Persian and French literature under the supervision of Mirza Mohammad Ali Khan Mohaqqeqi. Eskandari and Mohaqqeqi would later marry.
As an adult, Eskandari suffered from a spinal cord injury, taught for some time, and served as the director of a state school for girls. Her dissatisfaction with the state of women’s rights in Persia after the Constitutional Revolution led her to establish Jam’iyat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah, the Patriotic Women’s League of Iran, in 1922, which uniquely molded together feminism and Iranian nationalism. She was disappointed with the achievements of the Constitutional Revolution for women, so in 1922, along with a number of leading women in Tehran, she established the Patriotic Women’s Association. She lectured, administered the association’s magazine, and planned the community’s marches. In one of the rallies, they burned leaflets against women, which resulted in Mohtaram’s arrest by government officials. But this made her name well-known among the people of Iran. She also founded a school for adult women and promoted the use of national goods.
Mohtaram Eskandari died at the age of 29 in Tehran in July 1924, due to complications from a back surgery she had undergone as a child.
Women’s association: In 1922, the Patriotic Women’s Association was established with the esteemed work of Mohtaram Eskandari, Nurolhouda Mangeneh, Mastureh Afshar, and Madam Fakhr Afagh. The right to education for women was one of the most important goals of this association. With ten elected women, the board of directors was formed by the Patriotic Women’s Association, and the same delegation elected Eskandari as the first head of the community. The association Patriotic Women, on the path to the goals of women’s education and learning, published the magazine Nasvan-e Vatankhah (Persian: The Patriotic Women), in the wake of the launch of classes for older women. The magazine was the official organ of the association.