fsaneh Najmabadi - Crafting and Educated Housewife in Iran

Najmabadi makes the argument that an educated muslim woman makes a better mother, wife and nation. She talks about the definition of the Muslim wife and mother within premodern era Persian texts. They describe the motives for taking a wife being the preservation of property and progeny.These texts were clear regarding the father, not the mother, was responsible for the care and education of the children. 19th century texts shifted the mother to this role.  Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani mentions 'schools' in which Muslim men gains ethics; The womb, where the man biologically absorbs the character of his mother and  Family, where the family influences him, especially the mother. The womb seemed to take on epic importance, responsible for creating the nation of ethical Iranian men, and as such perhaps women (mothers) need respectful treatment to ensure they are not unhappy while their wombs are engaged in nation building.  However, Kirmani points out how Iranian women are deprived of all rights and this may have prompted a rethinking of gender in modernist Iran. Her main message is progress of the nation is seen as dependent on the progress of women, making women's education a priority, even to men's. Family eventually replaced man as the pillar of the nation, and women as mother were now given full responsibility for raising a most ethical family. Educated mothers would result in an intelligent and ethical nation.

Najmabadi describes how early in the 19th century, the organization of girls schools by Iranian mothers was met with hostility. I found it very interesting when she talked about how the notion of women in higher education was challenged. Why would a wife and mother need to go to high school, or university? How would that diploma help in raising their family? Be she points out that the term family can also mean the nation of Iran.