¹ Views on female education and the history of girls’ schools in modern Iran are treated in a number of sources, including Najmabadi, Afsaneh, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexuality Anxieties of Iranian Modernity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh, Conceiving Citizens: Women and the Politics of Motherhood in Iran (Oxford, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Amin, Camron Michael, The Making of the Modern Iranian Woman: Gender, State Policy, and Popular Culture, 1865–1946 (Gainesville, FL, 2002).Google Scholar For a recent study on the history of women and sexuality in modern Iran, see Afary, Janet, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge, 2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

² Shahvar, Soli, The Forgotten Schools: The Baha'is and Modern Education in Iran, 1899–1934 (London and New York, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Momen, Moojan, “Baha'i Schools in Iran,” in The Baha'is of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies, ed. Brookshaw, Dominic Parviz and Fazel, Seena B. (London and New York, 2008), 94–121.Google Scholar

³ Rostam-Kolayi, Jasamin, “Origins of Iran's Modern Girls’ Schools: From Private/National to Public/State,” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 4, no. 3 (Fall 2008): 58–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴ The Ministry of Education statistical yearbooks cited in this study include: Vizārat-i ma‘ārif va awqāf va sanāyi‘-i mustazrafih, Sālnāmih-yi Vizārat-i ma‘ārif va awqāf va sanāyi‘-i mustazrafih, yunt īl 1297 (Tehran, [c. 1919]); ma‘ārif, Vizārat-i, Qavānīn va nizāmnāmih-hā, ihsā’iyyih-yi madāris va makātib, ihsā’iyyih-yi a‘dā va mustakhdimīn [hereafter Sālnāmih-yi 1305–1306] (Tehran, [c. 1928])Google Scholar; ma‘ārif, Vizārat-i, Sālnāmih-yi ihsā’iyyih, 1307–1308 [hereafter Sālnāmih-yi 1307–1308] (Tehran, [c. 1930])Google Scholar; ma‘ārif, Vizārat-i, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312 (Tehran, [c. 1935])Google Scholar. The archives consulted are the Baha'i World Center Archives, Haifa, Israel (hereafter BWCA); and the National Baha'i Archives, Wilmette, United States (hereafter NBAUS).

⁵ The opposition and challenges faced by Baha'i girls’ schools are discussed in Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam, “The Bābī and Bahā’ī Religions and the Advancement of Women in Iran, 1848–1954” (PhD diss., University of Haifa, 2009), 176–87. For opposition to Baha'i schools in general, see Shahvar, Forgotten Schools, chapter 4. In early twentieth-century Iran, it was common to argue that education encouraged girls to engage in illicit sexual behavior. A treatise written in the 1920s in defense of women's veiling claimed that no girl had ever left school a virgin. See Chehabi, Houchang E., “The Banning of the Veil and Its Consequences,” in The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921–1941, ed. Cronin, Stephanie (London and New York, 2003), 195.Google Scholar

⁶ For an account of the Tarbīyat school for boys by a former pupil, see Thābit, ‘Abbās, Tārīkhchih-yi madrisih-yi Tarbīyat-i banīn (New Delhi, 1997).Google Scholar The circumstances that made it possible for Iranian Baha'is to open schools in the late Qajar period are discussed in Shahvar, Forgotten Schools, 63–77.

⁷ Some information on the Baha'i dars-i akhlāq or character training classes in Iran, which attended to the religious education of young Baha'is, is provided in Sīyāvush Rāstānī, Sayyid Hasan-i Mu‘allim va tārīkhchih-yi dars-i akhlāq (Hofheim, 2000).Google Scholar

⁸ See, for instance, ‘Abdu'l-Bahā's letters addressed to individuals involved with the Baha'i girls’ school in Hamadan discussed in Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, “Instructive Encouragement: Tablets of Baha'ullah and ‘Abdu'l-Baha to Baha'i Women in Iran and India,” in Baha'is of Iran, ed. Brookshaw and Fazel, 64–65.

⁹ Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches, chapter 7.

¹⁰ In 1809, John Gardiner, an American clergyman, argued that education was necessary for women, since, as future mothers, they would be entrusted with “the care of rational beings at the most critical period of their lives” (Gardiner, John S.J., A Sermon Delivered at Trinity Church, September 22nd, 1809, before the Members of the Boston Female Asylum, being their Ninth Anniversary [Boston, 1809], 19).Google Scholar In Iran in 1897, Hājī Sadr al-Saltanih, the minister of public works (favā’id-i ‘āmmih), commented that Napoleon had said that greater effort should be spent on the education of girls, who would be the educators of their children, since if the educator was incompetent, the educated would be lacking (Tarbīyat, no. 40 [18 Rabī‘ II 1315/16 September 1897]: 159; also cited in Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches, 191).

¹¹ For a discussion of the closure of the Baha'i schools, see Shahvar, Forgotten Schools, chapter 5; Momen, “Baha'i Schools in Iran,” 112–15.

¹² ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, The Promulgation of Universal Peace (Wilmette, IL, 1991), 137.Google Scholar

¹³ Star of the West 3, no. 3 (28 April 1912): 4. Star of the West was an early Baha'i periodical published in the United States. Originally titled Bahai News, it was renamed Star of the West in 1911 and The Bahā’ī Magazine: Star of the West in 1922.

¹⁴ Zabihi-Moghaddam, “Bābī and Bahā’ī Religions and the Advancement of Women,” 152–54. Two of ‘Abdu'l-Bahā's letters in which he refers to the sciences as part of the curriculum to be taught to girls are cited in Brookshaw, “Instructive Encouragement,” 64–65. For sexual equality in the Baha'i religion, see Schweitz, Martha L., “Women's Rights in the Baha'i Community: The Concept of Organic Equality in Principle, Law, and Experience,” in Women and International Human Rights Law, ed. Askin, Kelly D. and Koenig, Dorean M., vol. 3 (Ardsley, NY, 2001), 461–509.Google Scholar The approach to sexual equality in the Iranian Baha'i community is studied in Zabihi-Moghaddam, “Bābī and Bahā’ī Religions and the Advancement of Women.” For Baha'i women in Iran, see Momen, Moojan, “The Role of Women in the Iranian Baha'i Community During the Qajar Period,” in Religion and Society in Qajar Iran, ed. Gleave, Robert (London and New York, 2005), 346–69.Google Scholar See also Brookshaw's article “Instructive Encouragement,” which discusses letters written by Bahā’u'llāh and ‘Abdu'l-Bahā to Baha'i women in Iran and India.

¹⁵ The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action: Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 4–15 September 1995 (New York, 1996).Google Scholar See, in particular, Platform for Action, paras. 27 and 69.

¹⁶ United Nations Development Programme, Arab Human Development Report 2005: Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World (New York, 2006).Google Scholar For a critique of the report's approach to women's education and waged labor in the Arab world and its presentation of the data on education, see Adely, Fida J., “Educating Women for Development: The Arab Human Development Report 2005 and the Problem with Women's Choices,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 41, no. 1 (February 2009): 105–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁷ The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, Platform for Action, para. 69; Jejeebhoy, Shireen J., “Women's Autonomy in Rural India: Its Dimensions, Determinants, and the Influence of Context,” in Women's Empowerment and Demographic Processes: Moving Beyond Cairo, ed. Presser, Harriet B. and Sen, Gita (New York, 2000).Google Scholar

¹⁸ See, for instance, Hames, Mary, “Rights and Realities: Limits to Women's Rights and Citizenship after 10 Years of Democracy in South Africa,” Third World Quarterly 27, no. 7 (2006): 1322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar A survey in Tunisia in 1991 revealed that 70 percent of illiterate women were unaware of their rights under the Tunisian Code of Personal Status. See Grami, Amel, “Gender Equality in Tunisia,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 53, no. 3 (December 2008): 360, n. 26.Google Scholar

¹⁹ King, Elizabeth M. and Anne Hill, M., eds., Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies (Baltimore, 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paul Schultz, T., “Why Governments Should Invest More to Educate Girls,” World Development 30, no. 2 (February 2002): 207–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ermisch, John and Francesconi, Marco, “Family Matters: Impacts of Family Background on Educational Attainments,” Economica 68, no. 270 (May 2001): 137–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In the case of Iran, using data from household surveys conducted in 1987, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani has estimated that a one-year increase in the schooling of the mother raises the girl's schooling by 0.43 years in rural areas and 0.27 years in urban areas: “The Gender Gap in Education in Iran: Evidence for the Role of Household Characteristics,” in Labor and Human Capital in the Middle East: Studies of Markets and Household Behavior, ed. Salehi-Isfahani, Djavad (Reading, UK, 2001), 245.Google Scholar

²⁰ Salāhī, Parvīz and Basnās, Mihrī, Tārīkh-i madāris-i khārijī dar Īrān (Tehran, 1382 sh [2003–4]), 233.Google Scholar See also Hadidi, Djavad, “France xv. French Schools in Persia,” Encyclopædia Iranica 10: 178Google Scholar, Table 1. For a study on the girls’ schools of the American Mission with an emphasis on the school in Tehran, see Rostam-Kolayi, Jasamin, “From Evangelizing to Modernizing Iranians: The American Presbyterian Mission and its Iranian Students,” Iranian Studies 41, no. 2 (April 2008): 213–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Salāhī and Basnās, Tārīkh-i madāris-i khārijī, 125–50. A recent special issue of Iranian Studies (September 2011) was devoted to Alborz College and also provides information on other American Mission schools in Iran, including girls’ schools.

²¹ Young, Herrick Black, “Contrasts in Iran,” The Moslem World 26, no. 4 (October 1936): 381–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²² Berberian, Houri, “Armenian Women in Turn-of-the-Century Iran: Education and Activism,” in Iran and Beyond: Essays in Middle Eastern History, ed. Matthee, Rudi and Baron, Beth (Costa Mesa, CA, 2000), 82–83Google Scholar; Salāhī and Basnās, Tārīkh-i madāris-i khārijī, 91–99; Rostam-Kolayi, “Origins of Iran's Modern Girls’ Schools,” 62.

²³ Salāhī and Basnās, Tārīkh-i madāris-i khārijī, 233. See also Hadidi, “French Schools in Persia,” 178, Table 1.

²⁴ Ringer, Monica, “Reform Transplanted: Parsi Agents of Change amongst Zoroastrians in Nineteenth-Century Iran,” Iranian Studies 42, no. 4 (September 2009): 555–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fātimih-Baygum Rūh al-Amīnī, “Madāris-i Kirmān dar dawrih-yi mashrūtih,” Ganjīnih-yi asnād, no. 66 (Summer 1386 sh [2007]): 64–66; Shahrokh, Keikhosrow, The Memoirs of Keikhosrow Shahrokh, ed. and trans. Shahrokh, Shahrokh and Writer, Rashna (Lewiston, NY, 1994), 21Google Scholar; Amīnī, Tūraj, ed., Asnādī az Zartushtīyān-i mu‘āsir-i Īrān (1258–1338 sh) (Tehran, 1380 sh [2001–2]), 218Google Scholar; 223, n. 1; 255, n. 2; 265–66, document 165; Salāhī and Basnās, Tārīkh-i madāris-i khārijī, 99–110; Fariborz Majīdī and Hūšang Ettehād, “Fīrūz Bahrām,” Encyclopædia Iranica 9: 632.

²⁵ Rodrigue, Aron, Images of Sephardi and Eastern Jewries in Transition: The Teachers of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, 1860–1939 (Seattle, 1993), 16–17Google Scholar; Mahmūd Sādāt, “Bastaryābī-yi madāris-i nuvīn-i Kāshān va shināsāndan-i ānhā,” Ganjīnih-yi asnād, no. 68 (Winter 1386 sh [2007–8]): 33–36. See also Nātiq, Humā, Kārnāmih-yi Farhangī-yi Farangī dar Īrān (Paris, 1996), 115–50Google Scholar; Nikbakht, Faryar, “As With Moses in Egypt: Alliance Israélite Universelle Schools in Iran,” in Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews, ed. Sarshar, Houman (Philadelphia, 2002), 199–235Google Scholar; Salāhī and Basnās, Tārīkh-i madāris-i khārijī, 110–17; Amnon Netzer, “Alliance Israélite Universelle,” Encyclopædia Iranica 1: 893–94.

²⁶ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Part III, 76. See also al-Hasan Ghaffārī, Abū, Tārīkh-i ravābit-i Īrān va Farānsih, az tirur-i Nāsir al-Dīn Shāh tā jang-i jahānī-yi avval (1313–1333 h.q.) (Tehran, 1368 sh [1989–90]), 174.Google Scholar Franco-Persane received support from the Alliance Française.

²⁷ Shukūfih 2, no. 20 (1 Safar 1332 [30 December 1913]): 3–4. The volume and issue numbers of Shukūfih can be inconsistent; to find a specific issue reliably, the date should be used. Shukūfih was the second women's journal published in Iran. For brief discussions of its contents, see Ringer, Monica M., “Rethinking Religion: Progress and Morality in the Early Twentieth-Century Iranian Women's Press,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24, no. 1 (2004): 50–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches, 205; Kashani-Sabet, Conceiving Citizens, 128.

²⁸ For the early schools for Muslim girls, see Rostam-Kolayi, “Origins of Iran's Modern Girls’ Schools,” 68–76. See also Rubāb Hasībī, “Madāris-i nisvān az āghāz tā sāl-i 1314,” Ganjīnih-yi asnād, no. 1 (Spring 1370 sh [1991]): 82–99.

²⁹ For an English translation of the text of the Iranian Constitution of 1906–7, see Browne, Edward G., The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909 (Cambridge, 1910), 362–84.Google Scholar

³⁰ For the text of the Fundamental Law of Education, see Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Part VII, 27–29; Fārsānī, Suhaylā Turābī, ed., Asnādī az madāris-i dukhtarān az mashrūtih tā Pahlavī (Tehran, 1378 sh [1999–2000]), xvi–xviii.Google Scholar

³¹ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Part III, 76; Turābī Fārsānī, Asnādī az madāris-i dukhtarān, 104–14, documents 18–28.

³² Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Part III, 76–77.

³³ Menashri, David, Education and the Making of Modern Iran (Ithaca, NY, 1992), 110Google Scholar, Table 2.

³⁴ ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, , Makātīb-i ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1910), 330–35.Google Scholar The date 11 December 1906 is written on the original copy of this letter sent to the Baha'is in the West (AC001/001/14750, BWCA). The original copy sent to Iran is undated (AC001/001/11158, BWCA). An early English translation of the letter was published in ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, , Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas, vol. 3 (Chicago, 1916), 576–80.Google Scholar Extracts from the letter are published in ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, , Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Bahā (Wilmette, IL, 2009), 134Google Scholar, 138–39, sections 98 and 104.

³⁵ ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 134, section 98.

³⁶ Bahā’u'llāh, , The Kitāb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book (Wilmette, IL, 2009), 38Google Scholar, para. 48.

³⁷ For a discussion of Baha'i views on education, see Handal, Boris, “The Philosophy of Baha'i Education,” Religion and Education 34, no. 1 (Winter 2007): 48–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Shahvar, Forgotten Schools, 15–19.

³⁸ ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, , Risālih-yi madaniyyih (Hofheim, 1984).Google Scholar This work was first published anonymously in Bombay in 1882 under the title Asrār al-ghaybiyya li-asbāb al-madaniyya.

³⁹ See Bahā’u'llāh's statements to the teacher of Samandar's children in Bahā’u'llāh, and ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, , Āyāt-i bayyināt (Dundas, ON, 1999), 67, 290Google Scholar; and Samandar, Shaykh Kāzim, Tārīkh-i Samandar va mulhaqqāt (Tehran, 131 badī‘ [1974–75]), 203–4.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ They included short suras of the Qur'an, poems by Hafiz, Sa‘di's Gulistān, nisāb (a versified Arabic-Persian vocabulary), basic Arabic grammar, sīyāq (numerals and the associated numeric notation system based on the Arabic names for numbers), some hisāb (arithmetic) and calligraphy. See Khushbīn, Parīvash Samandarī, Tarāz-i ilāhī, vol. 1 (Hamilton, ON, 2002), 83.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Momen, “Baha'i Schools in Iran,” 97–98.

⁴² In or around 1908, five Baha'i girls were studying at the American Mission girls’ school in Tehran. See Sulaymānī, ‘Azīzullāh, Masābīh-i hidāyat, vol. 9 (Tehran, 132 badī‘ [1975–76]), 398.Google Scholar

⁴³ Mīrzā Ibrāhīm Khān Ibtihāj al-Mulk to Charles Mason Remey, 19 Dhī-Qa‘dih 1328 [22 November 1910], Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS.

⁴⁴ Yūnis Afrūkhtih to Ahmad Sohrab, n.d. [c. March 1911] (answered 23 July 1911), Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS.

⁴⁵ Ibid.; Susan I. Moody to Ahmad Sohrab, 7 March 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS.

⁴⁶ Susan I. Moody to Ahmad Sohrab, 19 April 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS.

⁴⁷ Majlis 1, no. 6 (16 Shavvāl 1324/3 December 1906): 3.

⁴⁸ Majlis 1, no. 4 (14 Shavvāl 1324/1 December 1906): 2.

⁴⁹ Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches, 199.

⁵⁰ ‘Abdu'l-Bahā's letter was also included in the volume of his correspondence that was published in Cairo in 1910 under the title Makātīb-i ‘Abdu'l-Bahā and which circulated in Iran. For a complete copy of ‘Abdu'l-Bahā's letter, including his instructions concerning its dissemination, see ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, Majmū‘ih-yi makātīb-i hadrat-i ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, vol. 16 ([Tehran], 132 badī‘ [1976]), 25–29.

⁵¹ Ibn-i Abhar to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 19 Rabī‘ II 1328 [30 April 1910], AA001/001/03552, BWCA; Munīrih Ayādī to Ahmad Sohrab, [4] Rabī‘ II 1329 [4 April 1911], Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS. Part of Ayādī's letter was published in Star of the West 2, nos. 7–8 (1 August 1911): 10–11 (Persian section).

⁵² Māzandarānī, Asadullāh Fādil-i, Tārīkh-i zuhūr al-Haqq, vol. 8 (Tehran, 131 badī‘ [1974–75]), 341.Google Scholar It is not clear whether or not this maktab was opened in response to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā's circular letter on education.

⁵³ For a biographical sketch of Munīrih Ayādī, see Arbāb, Furūgh, Akhtarān-i tābān, vol. 1, 3rd ed. (New Delhi, 1999), 333–39.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Munīrih Ayādī to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, n.d., AA001/001/05748, BWCA.

⁵⁵ Munīrih Ayādī to Ahmad Sohrab, [4] Rabī‘ II 1329 [4 April 1911], Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS. See also Yūnis Afrūkhtih to Ahmad Sohrab, 11 April 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS.

⁵⁶ Munīrih Ayādī to Ahmad Sohrab, [4] Rabī‘ II 1329 [4 April 1911], Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS; Star of the West 2, nos. 7–8 (1 August 1911): 10 (Persian section).

⁵⁷ Munīrih Ayādī to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, dated on envelope 18 Rajab 1329 [15 July 1911], AA001/001/05749, BWCA.

⁵⁸ See the list of girls’ schools in Tehran provided by the Board of Education and published in Shukūfih 2, no. 20 (1 Safar 1332 [30 December 1913]): 3–4.

⁵⁹ Turābī Fārsānī, Asnādī az madāris-i dukhtarān, 64–66, documents 19–20. Unfortunately, this source does not give the date of these documents.

⁶⁰ Shukūfih 4, no. 11 (1 Dhī-Qa‘dih 1334 [31 August 1916]): 3–4.

⁶¹ Arbāb, Akhtarān-i tābān, 1: 336, 338. See also Elizabeth H. Stewart to Isabella Brittingham, 15 February 1919, Jessie and Ethel Revell Papers, NBAUS. Ibn-i Abhar, Ayādī's husband, passed away in January 1919.

⁶² Susan I. Moody to Ahmad Sohrab, 8 April 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS. See also Yūnis Afrūkhtih to Ahmad Sohrab, 11 April 1911, Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS.

⁶³ See ‘Abdu'l-Bahā's letter to Mīrzā Hasan Adīb in Ni‘matullāh Dhukā’ī Baydā’ī, Sharh-i ahvāl va āthār-i janāb-i Āqā Mīrzā Hasan-i Adīb al-‘Ulamā-yi Tālaqānī ayādī-yi amr Allāh ‘alayh-i ridwān Allāh (Tehran, 129 badī‘ [1972–73]), iii–v.

⁶⁴ Ibn-i Abhar to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 19 Rabī‘ II 1328 [30 April 1910], AA001/001/03552, BWCA; Bahai News 1, no. 5 (5 June 1910): 6, 16; and 1, no. 6 (24 June 1910): 6–7.

⁶⁵ ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, , Makātīb-i ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, vol. 4 (Tehran, 121 badī‘ [1964–65]), 93.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ For the Persian–American Educational Society, see Stockman, Robert H., The Bahā’ī Faith in America, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1995), 354–58.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Yūnis Afrūkhtih to Ahmad Sohrab, n.d. [c. March 1911] (answered 23 July 1911), Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS.

⁶⁸ For the careers of Lillian Kappes and other American Baha'i women who settled in Iran in the early twentieth century, see Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, R., “American Bahā’ī Women and the Education of Girls in Tehran, 1909–1934,” in In Iran, Studies in Bābī and Bahā’ī History, vol. 3, ed. Smith, Peter (Los Angeles, 1986), 181–210.Google Scholar See also Stockman, Bahā’ī Faith in America, 2: 358–61; Seena B. Fazel and Minou Foadi, “Baha'i Health Initiatives in Iran: A Preliminary Survey,” in Baha'is of Iran, ed. Brookshaw and Fazel, 129–32.

⁶⁹ Shukūfih 2, no. 20 (1 Safar 1332 [30 December 1913]): 3–4. The largest and second largest girls’ schools in Tehran were Nāmūs and Hishmat al-madāris-i muhtaramāt.

⁷⁰ Vail, Albert, “An American Teacher Goes to Persia,” Star of the West 13, no. 5 (August 1922): 121.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Coy, Genevieve L., “Teheran—Persia,” The Magazine of the Children of the Kingdom 4, no. 4 (September 1923): 82Google Scholar; The Bahā’ī Magazine 14, no. 10 (January 1924): 314.Google Scholar

⁷² The Bahā’ī Magazine 19, no. 5 (August 1928): 149.Google Scholar

⁷³ Root, Martha L., “A Pilgrimage Through Persia,” The Bahā’ī Magazine 21, no. 7 (October 1930): 214.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Clara H. Sharp to Orol Platt, 4 March 1931, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS; Akhbār-i amrī 9, no. 6 (Shahrīvar 1309 [August–September 1930]): 15. Akhbār-i amrī was the national newsletter of the Baha'i community of Iran. With various interruptions, it was published from 1922 until 1980.

⁷⁵ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Part II, 5, 19, 21 and Table 2.

⁷⁶ Susan I. Moody to Orol Platt, 18 October 1930, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS. In her letter, Moody refers to Midhat as the associate principal of the school.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Sarah A. Clock to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 8 February 1920, AA001/004/00765, BWCA. Clock was the second American Baha'i woman to settle in Tehran. She shared residence with Lillian Kappes.

⁷⁹ Lillian F. Kappes to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 11 August 1919 and 9 February 1920, AA001/004/01932, BWCA.

⁸⁰ Ibid.; Susan I. Moody to Orol Platt, 18 October 1930, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

⁸¹ The Bahā’ī World, vol. 17 (Haifa, 1981), 468.Google Scholar For Fath-i-A‘zam, in addition to the brief biography published in the Bahā’ī World, 17: 467–70, see Arbāb, Furūgh, Akhtarān-i tābān, vol. 2 (New Delhi, 1990), 271–82.Google Scholar

⁸² For Ashraf, see “Qudsīyih khānum-i Ashraf, dāstān-i yik zindigī” by Mahnaze Ardjomande da Silveira two parts of which have, at the time of this writing, been published (Payām-i-Bahā’ī, no. 383 [October 2011]: 21–27; and no. 384 [November 2011]: 41–46). See also Arbāb, Akhtarān-i tābān, 2: 180–89; Sulaymānī, Masābīh-i hidāyat, 9: 390–438. Ashraf earned her Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1918.

⁸³ Root, “Pilgrimage Through Persia,” 213; Banani, Amin, The Modernization of Iran, 1921–1941 (Stanford, CA, 1977), 96.Google Scholar Moody mentions that one of the daughters was in Tarbīyat-i banāt in the spring of 1924 (Susan I. Moody to Orol Platt, 8 May 1924, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS).

⁸⁴ Shahvar, Forgotten Schools, Appendix, Table 3.

⁸⁵ Lillian F. Kappes to D.D. Babcock, 19 December 1911, Star of the West 2, no. 18 (7 February 1912): 13.

⁸⁶ Sarah A. Clock to unnamed recipient, 17 June 1914, AA001/004/00763, BWCA.

⁸⁷ Lillian F. Kappes to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 29 June, 8 and 15 July 1920, AA001/004/01933, BWCA.

⁸⁸ Lillian F. Kappes to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 11 August 1919 and 9 February 1920, AA001/004/01932, BWCA.

⁸⁹ Lillian F. Kappes to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 29 June, 8 and 15 July 1920, AA001/004/01933, BWCA. Writing in 1919, Kappes noted that despite their hatred of “things foreign or things Bahai,” Muslims “trust their girls to our school while there are over fifty other girls’ schools” (Kappes to Orol Platt, 10 July 1919, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS).

⁹⁰ Coy, “Teheran—Persia,” 82.

⁹¹ Ibid., 82.

⁹² Susan I. Moody to Orol Platt, 8 May 1924, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

⁹³ Clara H. Sharp to Orol Platt, 4 March 1931, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

⁹⁴ The Bahā’ī World, vol. 5 (New York, 1936), 117.Google Scholar The figure 719 includes the pupils in Tarbīyat-i banāt's kindergarten.

⁹⁵ Adelaide Sharp to Orol Platt, 26 February 1933, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS. The figure 750 includes the pupils in the school's kindergarten.

⁹⁶ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Part II, 5, 19.

⁹⁷ The figure 800 appears in the dispatch dated 15 December 1934 from the British Ambassador in Tehran Hughe M. Knatchbull-Hugessen. See Momen, Moojan, ed., The Bābī and Bahā’ī Religions, 1844–1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford, 1981), 477.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Sarah A. Clock to unnamed recipient, 17 June 1914, AA001/004/00763, BWCA; Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 1 July 1920, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

⁹⁹ Shukūfih 1, no. 12 (5 Sha‘bān [1331] [10 July 1913]): 3; 2, no. 14 (5 Sha‘bān 1332 [29 June 1914]): 2. In 1914, another six of the girls at Nāmūs passed the examinations and received their certificates.

¹⁰⁰ In 1911, there were forty-seven girls’ schools in Tehran with a total of 2,187 students (Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches, 199). Many of these had opened before Tarbīyat-i banāt and were still in operation in 1914. The dates of the opening of some of the early girls’ schools in Tehran are given in Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1305–1306, 112, 114.

¹⁰¹ For the date of the opening of Nāmūs, see ol-Moluk Bāmdād, Badr, From Darkness into Light: Women's Emancipation in Iran, ed. and trans. Bagley, F.R.C. (Hicksville, NY, 1977), 42Google Scholar; Turābī Fārsānī, Asnādī az madāris-i dukhtarān, xiv. For its founder, Tūbā Āzmūdih, see Woodsmall, Ruth Frances, Moslem Women Enter a New World (New York, 1936), 145–46.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Sarah A. Clock to unnamed recipient, 17 June 1914, AA001/004/00763, BWCA; Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 20 November 1916, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS. See also Shahvar, Forgotten Schools, 83–84.

¹⁰³ According to Clock, the students were all very fond of Kappes (Sarah A. Clock to unnamed recipient, 17 June 1914, AA001/004/00763, BWCA). Later again she wrote that “no one in this whole city can be more beloved” (Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 20 November 1916, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS).

¹⁰⁴ Susan I. Moody to Joseph Hannen, 24 June 1915, Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers, NBAUS; Shukūfih 4, no. 11 (1 Dhī-Qa‘dih 1334 [31 August 1916]): 2–3. In 1916, in addition to the eighteen, another five girls who had studied independently attended the sixth grade examinations at Tarbīyat-i banāt and received their certificates.

¹⁰⁵ Shukūfih 4, no. 11 (1 Dhī-Qa‘dih 1334 [31 August 1916]): 2–4. The information published in Shukūfih was provided by the Board of Education.

¹⁰⁶ Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 22 June 1917, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

¹⁰⁷ Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, n.d. [Spring 1920], Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS. In another letter, Clock noted that even the Muslims “were most enthusiastic in praise of her [Kappes] & of the improvement of the conduct of their little girls in their homes” (Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 8 December 1920, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS).

¹⁰⁸ Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 1 July 1920, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

¹⁰⁹ Coy, Genevieve L., “Educating the Women of Persia,” The Bahā’ī Magazine 17, no. 2 (May 1926): 53.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Sattareh Farman Farmaian with Munker, Dona, Daughter of Persia: A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem through the Islamic Revolution (New York, 1992), 49.Google Scholar Character training also came to dominate the agenda of the American Mission girls’ school in Tehran (Rostam-Kolayi, “From Evangelizing to Modernizing Iranians,” 228).

¹¹¹ Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 1 July 1920, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

¹¹² Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 22 June 1917, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

¹¹³ Susan I. Moody to Joseph Hannen, n.d. [c. February 1916], Hannen-Knobloch Family Papers, NBAUS. One of these teachers had married before receiving her certificate and was then working outside the home with the full support of her husband, who was himself a teacher.

¹¹⁴ Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 29 January 1918, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

¹¹⁵ Coy, Genevieve, “The Need for the Education of Women in the Near East,” Star of the West 13, no. 7 (October 1922): 178.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Rostam-Kolayi, “Origins of Iran's Modern Girls’ Schools,” 73–74.

¹¹⁷ Sarah A. Clock to Orol Platt, 22 June 1917, Orol Platt Papers, NBAUS.

¹¹⁸ Lillian F. Kappes to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, 11 August 1919 and 9 February 1920, AA001/004/01932, BWCA.

¹¹⁹ Elizabeth H. Stewart to Isabella Brittingham, 23 May 1921, Jessie and Ethel Revell Papers, NBAUS.

¹²⁰ Coy, “Teheran—Persia,” 82.

¹²¹ Coy, “Educating the Women of Persia,” 53–55.

¹²² Ibid., 55.

¹²³ Ismā‘īl Kīmīyā’ī to Shoghi Effendi, 25 Isfand 1307 [16 March 1929], GA002/085/00695, BWCA; Khānumān Kīmīyā’ī to Shoghi Effendi, 1 Farvardīn 1308/[21] March [1929], GA002/085/00696, BWCA. Madrisih-yi Tarbīyat-i dukhtarān closed not long after the death of its foundress, which occurred in 1931. For the news of her passing, see Akhbār-i amrī 10, no. 6 (Shahrīvar 1310 [August–September 1931]): 11–12.

¹²⁴ Yūsuf Muttahidih to Ahmad Sohrab, 9 Muharram 1329 [11 January 1911], Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS. Other sources give the date of the opening of the school as 1327 (January 1909–January 1910) or 1288 sh (March 1909–March 1910). See Turābī Fārsānī, Asnādī az madāris-i dukhtarān, 56, document 8; Ishrāq-Khāvarī, ‘Abd al-Hamīd, Tārīkh-i amrī-yi Hamadān, ed. Rafati, Vahid (Hofheim, 2004), 128.Google Scholar The Mawhibat school is also discussed in Brookshaw, “Instructive Encouragement,” 64–65.

¹²⁵ For a short biographical account of Mahbūbih Na‘īmī, see Arbāb, Akhtarān-i tābān, 2: 216–26. See also The Bahā’ī World, vol. 16 (Haifa, 1978), 540–41.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Turābī Fārsānī, Asnādī az madāris-i dukhtarān, 54–56, documents 6–9.

¹²⁷ Ishrāq-Khāvarī, Tārīkh-i amrī-yi Hamadān, 129; Ishrāqīyih Dhabīh, “Tārīkhchih-yi zindigānī-yi man az sinn-i yik sāl va nīm,” 25, MR1381, BWCA. For a published biography of Ishrāqīyih Dhabīh, see Arbāb, Akhtarān-i tābān, 2: 120–29. See also Bahā’ī World, 16: 517–18.

¹²⁸ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Part II, 59–60.

¹²⁹ Āhang-i badī‘ 28, nos. 7–8 (Mihr–Ābān 1352 [September–November 1973]): 28; Akhbār-i amrī 9, nos. 7–8 (Mihr–Ābān 1309 [September–November 1930]): 15; Ruzītā Vāthiqī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī dar Iran,” 359, BP 371 .V37 1996 Thesis, Baha'i World Center Library, Haifa, Israel.

¹³⁰ Gulnar E. Francis-Dehqani, “Great Britain xv. British Schools in Persia,” Encyclopædia Iranica 11: 291.

¹³¹ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1305–1306, 180.

¹³² Vāthiqī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī,” 360; Sifīdvash, ‘Ināyat-Khudā, Tanī chand az pīshgāmān-i Pārsī-nizhād dar ‘ahd-i rasūlī (Dundas, ON, 1999), 152.Google Scholar

¹³³ Firishtih Mahdavī Afnān (née Taqavī) of Springfield, Massachusetts, letters to author, 4 April and 1 June 2007; Mahdavī Afnān, telephone conversations with author, 20 June and 19 November 2007. Mahdavī Afnān was a pupil of Tarbīyat-i dūshīzigān.

¹³⁴ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1305–1306, 182; Farīdānī, Suhrāb, Dūstān-i rāstān, [vol. 1] (Hofheim, 2002), 188, 394–95.Google Scholar See also Akhbār-i amrī 9, nos. 7–8 (Mihr–Ābān 1309 [September–November 1930]): 15.

¹³⁵ Akhbār-i amrī [4], no. 34 (24 Saratān 1304/15 July 1925): 1; Farīdānī, Dūstān-i rāstān, [1]: 188, 395; Sifīdvash, Tanī chand az pīshgāmān-i Pārsī-nizhād, 153. Prior to his conversion to the Baha'i religion, Hūshangī had been very much against the education of girls (Farīdānī, Dūstān-i rāstān, [1]: 187–88).

¹³⁶ Rūhangīz Hidāyatī, “Madrisih-yi dukhtarānih-yi Hūshangī-yi Yazd va du madrisih-yi dīgar,” Payām-i-Bahā’ī, no. 155 (October 1992): 29; Farīdānī, Dūstān-i rāstān, [1]: 395.

¹³⁷ Farīdānī, Dūstān-i rāstān, [1]: 188, 393–95. See also Vāthiqī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī,” 388.

¹³⁸ Rūhangīz and Vafā’ī Yazdānīyān to Shoghi Effendi, n.d. (received 24 December 1926), GA002/083/00360, BWCA; founders of Tahdhīb-i dūshīzigān to Shoghi Effendi, 12 Rajab 1346 [6 January 1928], GA002/084/00370, BWCA.

¹³⁹ Sifīdvash, Tanī chand az pīshgāmān-i Pārsī-nizhād, 153–54.

¹⁴⁰ The number of the girls in the Baha'i schools in Yazd in 1931 is given in Akhbār-i amrī 10, no. 6 (Shahrīvar 1310 [August–September 1931]): 13.

¹⁴¹ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Part II, 11, 56.

¹⁴² Mahdī Samandarī, “Az pīshgāmān-i ījād-i madāris-i dukhtarānih-yi Bahā’ī dar Īrān,” Payām-i-Bahā’ī, no. 183 (February 1995): 76; “Bunyān-i madāris-i Bahā’ī-yi Qazvīn,” Payām-i-Bahā’ī, no. 173 (April 1994): 31. See also Susan I. Moody to Eva Russell, et al. (copy), 27 November 1909, Thornton Chase Papers, NBAUS. Moody states that the girls’ school in Qazvin was started “two months” previously.

¹⁴³ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1305–1306, 142–43; Varjāvand, Parvīz, Sīmā-yi tārīkh va farhang-i Qazvīn (Tehran, 1377 sh [1998–99]), 2: 1155–60.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁴ Gulrīz, Muhammad-‘Alī, Mīnū-dar yā Bāb al-jannat-i Qazvīn (Tehran, 1337 sh [1958]), 583Google Scholar; Varjāvand, , Sīmā-yi tārīkh va farhang-i Qazvīn, 3: 1791–92.Google Scholar See also Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1305–1306, 142–43.

¹⁴⁵ For a short biography of Tarāzīyih Farhādī, see Arbāb, Akhtarān-i tābān, 2: 73–79.

¹⁴⁶ Samandarī, “Az pīshgāmān,” 75–76.

¹⁴⁷ Tarāzullāh Samandarī to editors of Payāmbar-i bākhtar [Star of the West], 7 Shavvāl 1328 [11 October 1910], Ahmad Sohrab Papers, NBAUS; Bahai News 1, no. 15 (12 December 1910): 4. See also Bahai News 1, no. 14 (23 November 1910): 4.

¹⁴⁸ Samandarī, “Az pīshgāmān,” 77–78.

¹⁴⁹ Tarāzīyih Farhādī to Shoghi Effendi, 9 ‘Alā 84 [10 March 1928], GA002/085/00003, BWCA.

¹⁵⁰ Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) of Qazvin to Shoghi Effendi, 12 Bahman 1311 [1 February 1933], GA002/089/00585, BWCA. LSAs are elected Baha'i governing councils at the local level.

¹⁵¹ For biographical information on Fā’izih Imāmī, see Arbāb, Akhtarān-i tābān, 1: 229–37; Momen, “Role of Women in the Iranian Baha'i Community,” 352–53.

¹⁵² Fā’izih Imāmī A‘zamī, Untitled treatise and historical account (copy), [204, 214–215, 217–218], Afnan Library, London, United Kingdom. The page numbering of the original manuscript is faulty.

¹⁵³ ‘Abdullāh Mutlaq to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, dated on envelope 7 Jamādī I 1339 [17 January 1921], AA001/001/00194, BWCA. See also Star of the West 12, no. 2 (9 April 1921): 2 (Persian section).

¹⁵⁴ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Part II, 73. The AIU school in Kashan, which offered seven grades, is listed as a boys’ school in Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Part II, 13, 73.

¹⁵⁵ Vāthiqī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī,” 80–81.

¹⁵⁶ Sulaymānī, Masābīh-i hidāyat, 9: 333.

¹⁵⁷ ‘Abdullāh Mutlaq to Shoghi Effendi, 14 Day 1307 [4 January 1929], GA002/085/00535, BWCA; Thābitih Sādiqī, “Tārīkhchih-yi mukhtasarī az ayyām-i musāfarat-i khud,” 12, GMC000018, BWCA. For a detailed study of Sa‘ādat-i banāt, see Zabihi-Moghaddam, Siyamak, “Educating Girls in Early Twentieth-Century Iran: A Study of a Baha'i School,” Journal of Religious History 36, no. 4 (December 2012): 516–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵⁸ Ismā‘īlī, Muhammad, Āmūzish va parvarish-i shahristān-i Najafābād dar bastar-i tārīkh (Isfahan, 1385 sh [2006–7]), 67.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁹ Mudarris, Fathullāh, Tārīkh-i amr-i Bahā’ī dar Najafābād, ed. Rafati, Vahid (Darmstadt, 2004), 177–80Google Scholar; Brookshaw, “Instructive Encouragement,” 66.

¹⁶⁰ Sādiqī, “Tārīkhchih,” 2–3.

¹⁶¹ Thābitih and Saniyyih Sādiqī to Shoghi Effendi, 14 March 1932, GA002/089/00029, BWCA; Sādiqī, , “Tārīkhchih,” 13–14; Abu al-Qāsim Faydī, “Chahār sāl va nīm dar Najafābād,” in Bih yād-i dūst (Wilmette, IL, 1998), 149.Google Scholar

¹⁶² “Tārīkhchih-yi dabistān-i Sa‘ādat-i banāt-i Najafābād az badv-i ta'sīs tā mawqi‘-i inhilāl,” 1, GA019/048/007, BWCA.

¹⁶³ Ābādih’ī, Qābil-i, Vaqāyi‘-i amrī-yi Ābādih, ed. Dihqān, Ghulām-‘Alī (Hofheim, 2007), 134–35.Google Scholar The Baha'i girls’ and boys’ schools in Abadih had the same names as the community's schools in Tehran.

¹⁶⁴ Ibid., 272. The Baha'is of Dirghūk, a village near Abadih, had also had a maktab for girls.

¹⁶⁵ Ibid., 275.

¹⁶⁶ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1305–1306, 134–35.

¹⁶⁷ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Part II, 41–42.

¹⁶⁸ Touran Mottahed (née Āgāh) of Cheadle Cheshire, United Kingdom, telephone conversation with author, 2 December 2007; Mottahed to Shapour Rassekh, 6 July 1987, copy on file with author. Mottahed was a pupil of the Baha'i girls’ school in Abadih.

¹⁶⁹ The two clerics were brothers. Three of their girls enrolled in Tarbīyat-i banāt, and two of them were later employed as teachers at Abadih's public school for girls (Qābil-i Ābādih’ī, Vaqāyi‘-i amrī-yi Ābādih, 275–76, 278). The information about the two clerics being the leading religious figures of Abadih at the time was obtained in a telephone conversation with Ghulām-‘Alī Dihqān of Marseille, France, on 22 November 2007.

¹⁷⁰ Qābil-i Ābādih’ī, Vaqāyi‘-i amrī-yi Ābādih, 276.

¹⁷¹ Farah Safā’ī of Sheidow Park, Australia, letter to author, 2 October 2007. Safā’ī is the daughter of one of the first two teachers of the Bahā’ī girls’ school and was also a pupil of the school.

¹⁷² Qābil-i Ābādih’ī, Vaqāyi‘-i amrī-yi Ābādih, 277–78.

¹⁷³ Touran Mottahed to Shapour Rassekh, 6 July 1987, copy on file with author; Fereshteh Taheri Bethel of Corona, California, email message to author, 29 November 2007. Taheri Bethel is Bālā Darghām's daughter.

¹⁷⁴ Qābil-i Ābādih’ī, Vaqāyi‘-i amrī-yi Ābādih, 279.

¹⁷⁵ Tarāzullāh Samandarī to Shoghi Effendi, 6 Rajab 1347 [19 December 1928], GA002/085/00537, BWCA.

¹⁷⁶ Vāthiqī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī,” 33.

¹⁷⁷ Tarāzullāh Samandarī to Shoghi Effendi, 7 Farvardīn 1308 [27 March 1929], GA002/086/00038, BWCA.

¹⁷⁸ This was the case with the co-educational schools of Kafshgar-Kalā and Chālih-Zamīn in Mazandaran. See Shaqāyiq Īqānī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī-yi Māzandarān,” 85, 145, BP 371 .I68 2001 Thesis, Baha'i World Center Library, Haifa, Israel.

¹⁷⁹ While data on literacy among Iranian Baha'is in the early twentieth century are hard to come by, a study carried out in 1972 among a sample group of Baha'is and Muslims in Mazandaran suggests that the level of female literacy in rural Baha'i communities was significantly higher than among the wider rural population. See Mehri Samandari Jensen, “The Impact of Religion, Socio-Economic Status, and Degree of Religiosity on Family Planning among Moslems and Baha'is in Iran: A Pilot Survey Research” (EdD thesis, University of Northern Colorado, 1981). For a summary, see Samandari Jensen's article, “Religion and Family Planning in Contemporary Iran,” in In Iran, ed. Smith, 213–37.

¹⁸⁰ Hygiene was taught in many of the village schools in Mazandaran. See Īqānī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī-yi Māzandarān,” 62, 86, 109, 120–21, 132.

¹⁸¹ For some other schools, see Shahvar, Forgotten Schools, Appendix, Table 1; and Momen, “Baha'i Schools in Iran,” Table 4.1.

¹⁸² ‘Abdu'l-Bahā to Baha'i Assembly of Jāsb (draft), 23 Rabī‘ I 1338 [December 1919], AC012/052/00112, BWCA; ‘Abdu'l-Bahā to Fādil-i Yazdī (draft), 9 November 1921, AC006/494/00004, BWCA; Abu al-Qāsim Firdawsī to Shoghi Effendi, 4 Sha‘bān [1341] [22 March 1923], GA002/080/00125, BWCA.

¹⁸³ Sifīdvash, Tanī chand az pīshgāmān-i Pārsī-nizhād, 196–98; Farīdānī, Dūstān-i rāstān, [1]: 213; ‘Abdu'l-Bahā to founders of Tarbīyat school in Mahdīābād, 30 Rabī‘ II 1338 [January 1920], AC001/001/04887, BWCA; Mahdī Mahdavī Afnān of Springfield, Massachusetts, letter to author, 16 July 2007.

¹⁸⁴ Muhammad-Ridā Pāyandih Chamgurdānī to Shoghi Effendi, 4 Ramadān 1347 [14 February 1929], GA002/085/00692, BWCA; ‘Abdullāh Mutlaq to Shoghi Effendi, 21 Ābān 1312 [12 November 1933], GA002/090/00380, BWCA.

¹⁸⁵ Akhbār-i amrī 10, no. 6 (Shahrīvar 1310 [August–September 1931]): 15.

¹⁸⁶ Hidāyatullāh Bushrū’ī to ‘Abdu'l-Bahā, n.d., AA001/001/03152, BWCA; Star of the West 4, no. 18 (7 February 1914): 5 (Persian section).

¹⁸⁷ The Bahā’ī Magazine 14, no. 8 (November 1923): 246; LSA of Bushrūyih to Shoghi Effendi, 2 Bahman 1308 [22 January 1930], GA002/086/00489, BWCA; Akhbār-i amrī 8, nos. 11–12 (Bahman–Isfand 1308/February–March 1930): 14. See also Bushrū’ī, Hasan Fu’ādī, Tārīkh-i dīyānat-i Bahā’ī dar Khurāsān, ed. Foadi, Minou D. and Vahman, Fereydun (Darmstadt, 2007), 358.Google Scholar The Baha'i girls’ school in Bushrūyih followed the curriculum of the Ministry of Education.

¹⁸⁸ Rūhānī, Muhammad-Shafī‘, Lama‘āt al-anwār, 2nd ed. (Bundoora, 2002), 439, 449–50.Google Scholar See also Akhbār-i amrī [2], no. 15 (7 Qaws 1302 [29 November 1923]): 1.

¹⁸⁹ LSA of Shīshvān to Shoghi Effendi, 14 Ādhar 1307 [5 December 1928], GA002/085/00536, BWCA; Tarāzullāh Samandarī to Shoghi Effendi, 7 Farvardīn 1308 [27 March 1929], GA002/086/00038, BWCA.

¹⁹⁰ ‘Abdullāh Mutlaq to Shoghi Effendi, 2 Jalāl 90 [10 April 1933], GA002/090/00092, BWCA; Qāsim Īqānī Māhfurūzakī to Shoghi Effendi, n.d. (received 25 May 1933), GA002/090/00100, BWCA. For additional information about these two schools, see Īqānī, “Tārīkhchih-yi madāris-i Bahā’ī-yi Māzandarān,” 60–65, 116–23.

¹⁹¹ ‘Abdullāh Mutlaq to Shoghi Effendi, 30 Ābān 1310/22 November 1931, GA002/088/00339, BWCA.

¹⁹² The Bahā’ī World, vol. 6 (New York, 1937), 96.Google Scholar

¹⁹³ Vojdanieh Parsa of Franklin, Tennessee, letters to author, 20 July and 10 October 2006; Parsa, interview by author, Haifa, Israel, 16–17 April 2006. Parsa and her three sisters taught at the girls’ school at various times.

¹⁹⁴ Bahā’ī World, 5: 28.

¹⁹⁵ ‘Alī-Akbar Furūtan to Shoghi Effendi, 1 Day 1312 [22 December 1933], GA002/090/00466, BWCA.

¹⁹⁶ Shu‘ā‘ullāh Aqdasī, “Sharh-i mukhtasarī az ta'sīs-i madrisih-yi Bahā’ī dar Saysān,” ‘Andalīb, no. 30 (Spring 1989): 56–59; Zeinab Moshtag, Unpublished notes, 30 July 2006–16 February 2007, original on file with author; Moshtag, interviews by author, Haifa, Israel, 2006–8.

¹⁹⁷ It should be noted, however, that the female students were all studying at Tarbīyat-i banāt in Tehran, while the male students were at four schools, three of which were outside Tehran. This reflects the wide disparity between Tehran and other areas in respect to attitudes to girls’ schooling, as well as educational and occupational opportunities for females.

¹⁹⁸ Vizārat-i ma‘ārif, Sālnāmih-yi 1311–1312, Table 2.

¹⁹⁹ Ibid., Table 2 and Part II, 78. At the time, the University of Tehran, Iran's only university, had not yet been opened to female students.

²⁰⁰ UNESCO, Education for All: Is the World on Track? (Paris, 2002), 243, 251.Google Scholar

²⁰¹ Firishtih Mahdavī Afnān, letter to author, 4 April 2007.

²⁰² Zabihi-Moghaddam, “Educating Girls in Early Twentieth-Century Iran,” 526.

²⁰³ Qābil-i Ābādih’ī, Vaqāyi‘-i amrī-yi Ābādih, 278.

²⁰⁴ Ibid., 278–79.

²⁰⁵ Firishtih Mahdavī Afnān, letter to author, 1 June 2007; Mahdavī Afnān, telephone conversations with author, 20 June and 19 November 2007.

²⁰⁶ Szyliowicz, Joseph S., Education and Modernization in the Middle East (Ithaca, NY, 1973), 239Google Scholar; Arasteh, A[bdol] Reza, Education and Social Awakening in Iran, 1850–1968 (Leiden, 1969), 79.Google Scholar

²⁰⁷ Ahmad Ashraf, “Education vii. General Survey of Modern Education,” Encyclopædia Iranica 8: 191, Table 2; Sayyed ‘Alī Āl-e Dāwūd, “Education ix. Primary Schools,” Encyclopædia Iranica 8: 201, Table 1; Ahmad Bīrašk, “Education x. Middle and Secondary Schools,” Encyclopædia Iranica 8: 204, Table 1.