Moulding Future Soldiers and Mothers of the Iranian Nation: Gender and Physical Education under Reza Shah, 1921–41

Abstract

This article discusses the development of male and female physical education and scouting in early twentieth-century Iran and the construction of ideal gender images through the process of implementation. Utilizing articles from various Iranian periodicals, it argues that physical education constituted an important medium for the state and its new middle class supporters to convey two major messages, which internally circulated among themselves and reinforced their distinct class consciousness. While the press presented images of equality between moral, healthy, and productive boys and girls as civic partners in working to bring the Iranian nation back to prosperity, it also made sure by discrediting such counter images as masculine women and consumer women that Iranian girls would not deviate from proper motherhood. The paper also suggests that Iran's experience was influenced by developments in other parts of the world.

Notes

[1] ‘ Ruz-e khojaste-ye sevvom-e esfand’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 10 (10–11) (1941).

[2] In this paper, by physical education I refer not only to various kinds of exercises and sports taught in physical education classes at modern schools but also Scouting, which was highly promoted and discussed along with physical education during the period in modern schools in Iran.

[3] Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality, 177–8; Proctor, On My Honour, 23 and 30.

[4] For some of these works, see Chehabi, ‘The Juggernaut of Globalization’, and his ‘Staging the Emperor's New Clothes’. See also Schayegh, ‘A Sound Mind Lives in a Healthy Body’, and his ‘Sport, Health, and the Iranian Modern Middle Class’.

[5] Some of the works related to the present study include Amin, The Making of the Modern Iranian Woman and part II of Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards.

[6] Delfani, Documents of the Iranian Scout Association, 59.

[7] Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards, 185.

[8] Sakurai, ‘Reza Shah ki Iran no Taiiku Gyoji: Sono Seiritsu Katei to Yakuwari’, 74–5.

[9] Schayegh, ‘Sport, Health, and the Iranian Modern Middle Class’, 341–2.

[10] Chehabi, ‘The Juggernaut of Globalization’, 277.

[11] The other two pillars were ‘the extension of the strength of the security forces’ and ‘the improvement of public sanitation’. See Wilber, Riza Shah Pahlavi, 115.

The presence of Europeans probably had some impact in the popularization of modern sports. According to the statistics from 1938, Khuzestan, the oil-producing region in the south-west where employees of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company resided, had a disproportionately large number of football, tennis and volleyball clubs (football: 59 in Tehran and 56 in Khuzestan; tennis: 9 in Tehran and 41 in Khuzestan; volleyball: 77 in Tehran and 44 in Khuzestan). See Salnameh va Amar (1936/7–1937/8 and 1937/8–1938/9), part III, 282–3.

[13] Sadiq, Modern Persia and Her Educational System, 58; ‘Qanun-e varzesh-e ejbari dar madares-e jadideh’, Ta'lim va Tarbiyat 3 (7–8) (1927).

[14] Schayegh, ‘Science, Medicine, and Class in the Formation of Semi-Colonial Iran’. Particularly relevant here is part 2, ‘Medicalizing Modernity: Patterns of Interaction between Bio-Medical Sciences and Modernity in Iran, 1900s–1940s’.

[15] Taqizadeh mentioned in Kaveh that the urgent popularization of exercise was one of the most necessary actions. See ‘Vajebat-e avvaliyye’, Kaveh, 2 Dec. 1921, and ‘Asrar-e tamaddon’ in Kaveh, 8 June 1921. Hossein Kazemzadeh Iranshahr also argued that physical education should constitute an indispensable part of modern education to create the perfect strength. ‘Ma'aref va arkan-e seguneh-ye an’, Iranshahr, 21 April 1924.

[16] ‘Ta'lim va tarbiyat dar iran-e bastan’, Ettela'at, 12 Dec. 1937. For a similar claim for the origin of moral education, see ‘Gozaresh-e mosaferat-e jenab-e aqa-ye vazir-e ma'aref’, Ta'lim va Tarbiyat 6 (3) (1936). Also see ‘Varzesh dar iran-e qadim’, Kaveh, 8 June 1921; ‘Tarbiyat-e akhlaqi-ye fardi va ejtema'i’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 9 (7) (1939), ‘Ta'mim-e varzesh va tarbiyat-e badani’, Ettela'at, 10 Sept. 1938, and ‘Ta‘lim va tarbiyat dar miyan-e iraniyan-e qadim’, Iranshahr, 26 July 1922.

[17] The zurkhaneh was a kind of Iranian gymnasium in which men practised physical activities combining religious rituals and wrestling. For a detailed discussion of the zurkhaneh, see Rochard, ‘The Identities of the Iranian Zurkhanah’. For a discussion of the zurkhaneh for the Iranian middle class in the inter-war period, see Schayegh. ‘Sport, Health, and the Iranian Modern Middle Class’, 364–9.

[18] ‘Varzesh va servat’, Ettela'at, 30 Oct. 1938.

[19] Kaveh, 8 June 1921.

[20]For instance, the zurkhaneh exercises were disapproved of because they did not involve competition and victory, the main characteristics of modern sports. At the same time, fair play and cooperation with others were considered equally important. Dominating the ball in a soccer game was discouraged from the standpoint of sportsmanship. See ‘Varzesh va amuzeshgah’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 10 (3) (1940), and ‘Dar zurkhaneh’, Ettela'at, 8 Nov. 1938.

[21] ‘Tarbiyat-e badani’, Ta'lim va Tarbiyat 4 (5) (1934).

[22] ‘Qanun-e varzesh-e ejbari dar amuzeshgahha’, Salnameh va Amar (1936/7–1937/8, 1937/8–1938/9), part I, 184.

[23] ‘Tarbiyat-e sarbazi’, Ettela'at, 16 Dec. 1937; and ‘Ta'lim va tarbiyat dar dowreh-ye shahanshahi sasaniyan’, Ta'lim va Tarbiyat 4 (1) (1934).

[24] ‘Nehzat-e pishahangi dar iran’, Ta'lim va Tarbiyat 6 (1) (1936).

[25] ‘Pishahangi va tarbiyat-e badani’, Ettela'at, 25 Dec. 1937; Salnameh va Amar (1938/9–1939/40 and 1939/40–1940/1), Fasl-e Dovvom: Parvaresh-e Badani va Pishahangi, 24.

[26] ‘Sevvom-e esfand’, Iran-e Emruz 1 (1) (1939).

[27] ‘Ejra-ye nezam-e ejbari’, Ettela'at, 8 Nov. 1926. See also Mostofi, The Administrative and Social History of the Qajar Period, 1161.

[28] Afsaneh Najmabadi, ‘Arshiv: Bakhshha'i az “Sad Khatabe” Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani’, reproduced in Nimeye Digar 1 (9) (1989), 110.

[29] The understanding that mothers' traits were transmittable after insemination might be based on the neo-Lamarckian theory of eugenics, which was prevalent in Iran until the 1940s. For Iranian acculturation of eugenics, see Schayegh, ‘Hygiene, Eugenics, Genetics’.

[30] For their views regarding women, see Paidar, Women and the Political Process.

[31] According to Najmabadi, the precedence of women's role as nurturer and educator over her role as ‘a vessel for the foetus’ was a nineteenth-century reconfiguration. Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards, 195.

[32] For instance, ten free primary schools for girls were built in Tehran in 18 months from 1918 to 1920. See Stocking Boyce, ‘Government Education for Girls in Persia’.

[33] The statistical data here are based on the information from Amin, The Making of the Modern Iranian Woman, 145, and Matthee, ‘Transforming Dangerous Nomads into Useful Artisans’.

[34] Sadiq, Modern Persia and Her Educational System, 84–5.

[35] ‘Hemayat-e zanan va atfal’, Ettela'at, 8 Sept. 1935. The metaphor of men and women as two wings of society was not unique to this article. For instance, an article in Mehregan praised Reza Shah's reforms, which enabled Iranian society ‘to fly to the complete apex with two strong wings’: men and women. See ‘Bein-e zan va mard tafavoti nist’, Mehregan 1 (15) (1935).

[36] ‘Asas-e khanevadeh zan va mard ast’, Ettela'at, 8 Jan. 1938 for another example.

[37] ‘Qabeliyat-e nesvan dar ta'lim va tarbiyat’, Ettela'at, 2 July 1928. For the discourse of scientific motherhood, see Rostam-Kolayi, ‘Foreign Education, the Women's Press, and the Discourse of Scientific Domesticity’.

[38] For issues of hygiene, see Kashani-Sabet, ‘The Politics of Reproduction’ and another article by the same author, ‘Hallmarks of Humanism’.

[39] ‘Ahammiyat-e hefz al-sehhe baraye zanan’, Iranshahr, 18 Sept. 1923 and 18 Oct. 1923.

[40] ‘Varzesh-e dokhtaran’, Ettela'at, 26 May 1935. For a similar argument, see ‘Pishahangi-ye dushizegan’, Ettela'at, 11 March 1936.

[41]Iran-e Now, 1 July 1911, cited in Najmabadi, ‘Veiled Discourse – Unveiled Bodies’, 509.

[42] ‘Ahammiyat-e hefz al-Sehhe baraye zanan’.

[43] Hasan Taqizadeh, a prominent politician and the editor of Kaveh, another Persian newspaper printed in Germany, also discussed the necessity of physical education for the nation extensively, although he did not specify the gender of the subject. For examples from Kaveh and Iranshahr, see ‘Asrar-e tamaddon’, Kaveh 2 (6) (1921); ‘Vajebat-e avvaliyye’, Kaveh 2 (12) (1921); ‘Jang ba fesad-e akhlaq’, Iranshahr, 25 Oct. 1921; ‘Ma'aref va arkan-e segune-ye an’, Iranshahr, 21 April 1924; and ‘Madrase-ye okhovvat-e eslami dar bahmani’, Iranshahr, 19 June 1925.

[44] ‘Varzesh va pishahangi’, Iranshahr, 24 Aug. 1926.

[45] ‘Sherkat-e dokhtaran-e daneshamuz dar mosabeqeha-ye varzeshi’, Ettela'at, 2 March 1939.

[46] ‘Tarbiyat-e badani-ye dokhtaran’, Mehregan 119 (6 Sept. 1940), 3.

[47] In fact, among its primary goals, the constitution of the Women's Society stated that it aimed at ‘the encouragement of sports appropriate for physical education in accordance with the principles of hygiene’. See Salnameh va Amar, 1315–16 and 1316–17, part I, 467.

[48] ‘Barnameh-ye motavassete-ye dokhtaran’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 9 (7–8) (1939).

[49] Jane Doolittle, ‘Annual Report of Iran Bethel School, 1927–1928’, Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS), RG91-20-12; ‘Annual Report of Iran Bethel School, 1928–1929’, PHS, RG91-20-12; ‘Annual Report Iran Bethel-Sage College, July 1 1933–July 1 1934’, PHS, RG91-20-12; ‘Nurbakhsh School, Sage College, Annual Report 1934–1935’, PHS, RG91-20-12; Ruth E. Harman, ‘Report of the American School for Girls, Tabriz, Persia, 1931–1932’, PHS, RG91-20-10; ‘Report of the Parvin School 1935’, PHS, RG91-20-10; Judith McComb, ‘Annual Report of Nurbakhsh School, Teheran: 1935–1936’, PHS, RG91-20-12; and Mary C. Johnson, ‘Report Parvin School Tabriz 1935–1936’, 23 June 1936, PHS, RG91-20-10.

[50] ‘Vala hazrat-e shahdokht-e shams pahlavi riyasat-e ‘ali-ye pishahangi-ye dushizegan-e iran dar lebas-e pishahangi.’Ettela'at, 26 Feb. 1936.

[51] For an analysis of Reza Shah's role as the father figure of the Iranian nation, see Najmabadi, ‘Hazards of Modernity and Morality’.

[52] ‘Pishahangi va tarbiyat-e badani’, Ettela'at, 25 Dec. 1937; and Salnameh va Amar (1938/39-1939/40 and 1939/40-1940/41), Fasl-e Dovvom: Parvaresh-e Badani va Pishahangi, 24.

[53] Judith McComb, ‘Annual Report of Nurbakhsh School, 1938–1939’, PHS, RG91-20-12.

[54] See Annie Stocking Boyce, ‘A Letter from Annie Stocking Boyce to the Student Volunteer Bond at the Wellesley College’, 6 Feb. 1920, PHS, RG91-20-12; Harriet T. Hutchison, ‘Station Letter from Teheran, East Persian Mission, Fall 1925’, PHS, RG91-20-12; Lillian B. McHenry, ‘Report of Iran Bethel School, 1925–1926, Teheran, Persia’, PHS, RG 91-20-12; Gertrude Peet, ‘Fifty Years Old’, 1925, PHS, RG91-20-12; and ‘Report of Iran Bethel School for the Year 1926–1927’, PHS, RG91-20-12. In at least some of the gym classes, a hygiene textbook was used as well. Also worth mentioning is the new venture in physical examinations. The school purchased scales and a tapeline, and all the girls were weighed and measured as well as being examined by a doctor.

[55] Judith McComb, ‘Annual Report of Nurbakhsh School, Sage College, Teheran: July 1, 1934–June 30, 1935’, PHS, RG91-20-12.

[56] Jane Doolittle, ‘Annual Report of Nurbakhsh School: July 1, 1939–June 30, 1940’, PHS, RG91-20-12.

[57] Judith McComb, ‘Annual Report of Nurbakhsh School, 1938–1939’, PHS, RG91-20-12.

[58] Farman Farmaian, Daughter of Persia, 60.

[59] Mary C. Johnson, ‘Report of Parvin School, 1938–1939’, PHS, RG91-20-10 and Jane Doolittle, ‘Annual Report of Nurbakhsh School: July 1, 1939–June 30, 1940’, PHS, RG91-20-12.

[60] ‘Sevvom-e esfand’, Iran-e Emruz 1 (1) (1939); ‘Jashn-e bozorg-e varzeshi’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 9 (7–8) (1939); ‘Ain-e bashokuh-e san va rezheh-ye sevvom-e esfand 1318’, Iran-e Emruz 2 (1) (1940), 7; ‘Jashn-e salyaneh-ye varzeshi’, Iran-e Emruz 2 (8) (1940), 10; and ‘Jashn-e salyaneh-ye varzeshi’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 12 (5–7) (1942), h.

[61] Keiko Sakurai, ‘Reza Shah ki Iran no Taiiku Gyoji’, Oritento 33, no. 2 (1990): 70.

[62] For instance, see the picture and the caption at the bottom of page 11 in Mehregan 1, no. 17 (21 February 1936) and page 5 of Mehregan 1, no. 18 (7 March 1936) cover only Girl Scouts. Also, at the annual summer camp session for scouts and scout leaders in 1940, only fifty girls attended the first swimming class for girls in the camp and competed, while more than four hundred boys attended. Nevertheless, in Amuzesh va Parvareh, pictures of girls in bathing suits occupied the same space as that of boys. See ‘Jashn-e payan-e mosabeqeha-ye shena-ye manzarieh’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 10, no.5 (1940).

[63] ‘Sevvom-e esfand’, Iran-e Emruz 1 (1) (1939), 8.

[64] Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality, 177.

[65] For instance, ‘Tamashachi budam’, Ettela'at, 26 Feb. 1936.

[66] For instance, ‘Ruz-e khojasteh-ye sevvom-e esfand’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 10 (10–11) (1941); ‘Sevvom-e esfand’, Iran-e Emruz 1 (1) (1939); and ‘Kholaseh-ye gozaresh-e pishahangi va tarbiyat-e badani dar aban 1318’, Iran-e Emruz 1 (7–8) (1939).

[67] ‘Jashn-e salyaneh-ye dabestan-e melli-ye sharaf- ‘eraq’, Mehregan 1 (8) (1935), 10; and ‘Jashn-e bozorg-e varzeshi’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 9 (7–8) (1939).

[68] For an excellent account of the forced unveiling, see ‘The Banning of the Veil and Its Consequences’.

[69] Hedayat, Khaterat va Khatarat, 407–9.

[70] Ibid., 495.

[71] ‘Mo'amma-ye ezdevaj va tahsilat-e ‘aliyeh’, Ettela'at, 14 Aug. 1936. For this passage, I used the translation by Camron Amin. See Amin, The Making of the Modern Iranian Woman, 155–6.

[72] Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality, 177–8 and Proctor, On My Honour, 23. For other studies of female physical education in Euro-American contexts, see Paul Atkinson, ‘Strong Minds and Weak Bodies’; Hargreaves, ‘Playing Like Gentlemen While Behaving Like Ladies’; and Pfister, ‘The Medical Discourse on Female Physical Culture in Germany’.

[73]Daily Mail (London), 21 July 1908, quoted in Trangbaek, ‘Gender in Modern Society’.

[74] For some of the examples, see ‘Zani ke mard shode ast’, Mehregan 16 (6 Feb. 1936), 11; ‘Banovan-e jahan va varzesh’, Mehregan 13 (23 Sept. 1936): 15; and ‘Banovan-e varzeshkar ya pahlevanan-e zurmand’, Mehregan 62 (15 Jan. 1938), 7, and ‘Tarbiyat-e sarbazi’, Mehregan 94 (25 Aug. 1939), 5.

[75]Salnameh va Amar, 1940/41–1941/42, 1941/42–1942/43 and 1942/43–1943/44, 373–6.

[76] ‘Tarbiyat-e badani-ye dokhtaran’, Mehregan 119 (6 Sept. 1940), 3.

[77] See ‘Varzesh va mosabeqe dar varzesh’, Mehregan 1 (17) (22 Dec. 1936); ‘Bachche-ye shirkhar Varzesh ham varzesh lazem darad’, Mehregan 2 (19) (22 Dec. 1936); ‘Kodam varzesh az varzeshha-ye digar behtar ast’, Iran-e Bastan 3 (13), 7 and 3 (15) (3 Oct. 1935), 12; and ‘Lashkarak’, Iran-e Emruz 1 (1) (1939), 17–19.

[78] ‘Chera khanomha bayad varzesh konand – Haft-ye makhsus-e varzesh jahat-e khanomha’, Iran-e Bastan 2 (37) (3 Nov. 1934), 8 and 10.

[79] ‘Chera khanomha bayad varzesh konand, ‘Madar va dokhtar-e emruz’. For the citation, see ‘Banovan-e jahan va varzesh’, Mehregan 2 (13) (7 Oct. 1936), 15.

[80] ‘Varzesh va mosabeqe dar varzesh’; ‘Kodam varzesh az varzeshha-ye digar behtar ast’; ‘Lashkarak’; ‘Khanomha movazeb-e tandorosti-ye khod bashid’, Mehregan 93 (11 Aug. 1939), 4; ‘Varzesh-e banovan’, Mehregan 113 (14 June 1940); and ‘Banovan-e jahan va varzesh’.

[81] Lee, ‘The Lady Footballers’, 1384.

[82] Two of the few exceptions include ‘Amuzesh-e fardi va jam'i’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 9 (5) (1939), 21, which featured a picture of girls practising gymnastics and ‘Tarbiyat-e badani’; and Iran-e Emruz 2 (4) (1940), 6–8, which discussed the introduction of track and field competitions for girls in the National Championships for 1940 and featured photographs of girls competing.

[83] ‘Gozaresh-e jashn-e dovvom-e ordibehesht’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 9 (2) (1939). Iran-e Emruz dedicated almost the entire issue to the celebrations related to the marriage: ‘Peivand-e Homayun’, Iran-e Emruz 1 (2 and 3) (1939).

[84] ‘Jashn-e payan-e mosabeqehha-ye shena-ye manzariyeh’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 10 (5) (1940). The number of girls who learned swimming was perhaps limited due to the lack of facilities. Although a Presbyterian report mentions a swimming class for girls in the 1920s, it was probably rare. See ‘Report of Iran Bethel School for the Year 1926–1927’, PHS, RG91-20-12. Even at the annual summer camp session for Scouts and Scout leaders in 1940, only 50 girls attended the first swimming class for girls in the camp, while more than 400 boys attended. The lack of facilities remained a problem throughout the Reza Shah period, but there was certainly construction taking place, as an article reports on the opening of a new swimming pool in Tehran. See ‘Tarbiyat-e badani’, Iran-e Emruz 2 (5) (1940), 17–22.

[85] ‘Tarbiyat-e badani heikal va qiyafe-ye shoma ra taghyir midahad’, Ettela'at, 12 Feb. 1937.

[86] ‘Favayed-e pishahangi’, Ettela'at, 16 April 1934.

[87] Kashani-Sabet, ‘The Politics of Reproduction’, 22.

[88] For the commercialization of the press and the influx of Euro-American images of beauty into Iran, see Amin. ‘Importing “Beauty Culture” into Iran’.

[89] For examples, see ‘Anva'e varzesh ke emruze dar donya-ye now baraye taqviyat-e ruh va jesm-e nowjavanan va banovan ma'mul ast’, Iran-e Bastan 1 (18) (1 June 1933), 7; and ‘Jahan-e zanan’, Mehregan 1 (9) (7 Aug. 1935), 18.

[90] For these arguments, see Kashani-Sabet, ‘The Politics of Reproduction’, 22; ‘Dokhtar-e javan che bepushand’, Ettela'at, 1 April 1939; ‘Banovan-e jahan va varzesh’, Mehregan 13 (7 Oct. 1936); ‘Lozum-e varzesh baraye zanan’, Mehregan 53 (14 Aug. 1937); and ‘Peiravi az mod!’Mehregan 62 (15 Jan. 1938).

[91] ‘Sourat-e ziba'i zaher hich nist’, Mehregan 84 (10 March 1939), 3 and ‘Madar va dokhtar-e emruz’, Mehregan 122 (16 Oct. 1940), 11–13.

[92] ‘Jashn-e salyaneh-ye varzeshi dar ruz-e chaharom-e aban’, Amuzesh va Parvaresh 12 (8) (1942), Alef.

[93]Salnameh va Amar, 1940/41–1941/42, 1941/42–1942/43 and 1942/43–1943/44, 18.

[94] Mosse, The Image of Men, 134–5.

[95] Brownfoot, ‘Emancipation, Exercise, and Imperialism’.

[96] For the globalization of Middle Eastern feminisms of the period, see the special issue of Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 4 (1) (2008) –‘Early Twentieth-Century Middle Eastern Feminisms, Nationalisms, and Transnationalisms’.

[97] ‘Anva'e varzesh ke emruze dar donya-ye now baraye taqviyat-e ruh va jesm-e nowjavanan va banovan ma'mul ast’, Iran-e Bastan 1 (18) (1 June 1933), 7; ‘Jahan-e zanan’, Mehregan 9 (7 Aug. 1935), 18; ‘Sourat-e ziba'i-ye zaher hich nist’, Mehregan 84 (10 March 1939), 3; ‘Varzesh va zarafat-e andam’, Mehregan 102 (22 Dec. 1939); and ‘Varzesh-e banovan’, Mehregan 113 (14 June 1940).

[98] ‘Dar kenar-e darya’, Ettela'at, 14 Aug. 1935; ‘Varzesh-e zemestani dar tabestan’, Ettela'at, 19 Aug. 1935; and ‘Qabel-e tavajjoh-e khandandegan-e mohtaram’, Iran-e Bastan 1 (1) (21 Jan. 1933), 6. Iran-e Bastan was particularly fascinated with athleticism of Nazi Germany and reported extensively on female sports.

[99] ‘Tarbiyat-e badani-ye dokhtaran’, Mehregan. For other references to the global trend, see ‘Pishahangi-ye dushizegan’, Ettela'at; ‘Lozum-e varzesn baraye zanan’, Mehregan; ‘Numune az varzeshha va mosabeqeha-ye bein al-mellali-ye olimpiya dar orupa ke hame sale baraye taqviyat-e ruh va jesm-e noujavanan va banovan ma'mul va motadevel ast’, Iran-e Bastan 2 (35) (28 Oct. 1934).