Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri

Khadijeh Afzal Khanoom was born in 1889 in Tehran, Qajar Iran (now Iran) and was the fifth child of Bibi Khanum Astarabadi, a women's rights activist and Musa Khan Vaziri.{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Bonnie G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&q=afzal+vaziri|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514890-9|pages=229|language=en}} According to some historical sources, when Bibi Khanum had not yet established her school, she would send her daughter to school in boys' clothes so that she could study alongside her brothers.{{Cite web|title=خدیجه افضل وزیری؛ نویسنده و پیشگام|url=http://www.ion.ir/news/8054|access-date=13 December 2020|website=ایران آنلاین}} Her siblings included: Hasan Ali Khan Wazir,{{Cite web|title=Hassanalikhan Vaziri Website|url=http://hassanalikhanvaziri.com/home-page.html|access-date=13 December 2020|website=hassanalikhanvaziri.com}} Ali Naqi Vaziri and Mowlud Khanoom who was a teacher like their mother.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RMEdFsyrBOsC&q=Khadijeh+Afzal+Vaziri|title=The Education of Women and The Vices of Men: Two Qajar Tracts|date=28 December 2010|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-5151-2|language=en}}

When she reached the age of 16, she taught the girls at Doshizgan Elementary School, which her mother had founded,{{Cite web|website=Deutsche Welle|title=مدرسه دوشيزگان {{!}} DW {{!}} 11 August 2006|url=https://www.dw.com/fa-ir/%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%87-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%B2%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%86/a-2411784|access-date=13 December 2020|language=fa-IR}} becoming one of the first teachers in Iran's first girls' school. She later taught at her sister's school too.

She married her cousin Agha Bozorg Mallah.{{Cite web|last=Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran|title=Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran|url=http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/people/1937.html|access-date=13 December 2020|website=Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran}} Their children included: Mahlagha Mallah, Amir Hushang, Husayn'ali, Mehrangiz, Khusraw, and Taymur, who died when he was 11 months old. Mahlagha was born in a caravanserai whilst the family were travelling on a pilgrimage.{{Cite web|last=Tavaana|date=23 February 2015|title=Mahlagha Mallah: Mother of Iran's Environment|url=https://tavaana.org/en/content/mahlagha-mallah-mother-iran%E2%80%99s-environment|access-date=13 December 2020|website=Tavaana|language=en|archive-date=30 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201230104119/https://tavaana.org/en/content/mahlagha-mallah-mother-iran%E2%80%99s-environment|url-status=dead}}

In addition to teaching Vaziri began to write articles for newspapers on women's issues.{{Cite web|title=Magiran {{!}} روزنامه سرمایه (1386/02/18): زنان پیشگام ایرانی /خدیجه افضل وزیری|url=https://www.magiran.com/article/1400810|access-date=13 December 2020|website=www.magiran.com}} One of her most notable articles was written for the paper Shafaq-e-Sorkh. In it she countered the attacks on women that were being published by an anonymous writer, which culminated in her writing: "Let women study and work with men, then you will see that women are no less than men". She taught throughout her life and was the director of girls' schools.{{Cite journal|last=Rostam-Kolayi|first=Jasamin|year=2008|title=Origins of Iran's Modern Girls' Schools: From Private/National to Public/State|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/mew.2008.4.3.58|journal=Journal of Middle East Women's Studies|volume=4|issue=3|pages=58–88|doi=10.2979/mew.2008.4.3.58|jstor=10.2979/mew.2008.4.3.58|s2cid=145195391|issn=1552-5864}}

Vaziri also designed her own clothes.{{Cite web|last=Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran|title=Khadijah Afzal Vaziri|url=http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/14129A57.html|access-date=13 December 2020|website=Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran}} During the 1930s, whilst many women began to stop wearing face veils, wearing the chador remained popular.{{Cite book|last=Moghissi|first=Haideh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ln19FcDV7wC&q=afzal+vaziri|title=Women and Islam: Women's movements in Muslim societies|year=2005|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-32421-2|pages=231|language=en}} Vaziri advocated for a change in fashion alongside Sediqeh Dowlatabadi, and she designed outfits where your arms could move more freely as a result. In an open letter in 1930, Vaziri discussed how enforcing young women (aged seven or eight) to wear a chador, meant that those who did not would be removed from their schools, which would affect their educational opportunities.{{Cite book|last1=Jakobsen|first1=Janet R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qZXrjFAbsoAC&q=afzal+vaziri|title=Secularisms|last2=Pellegrini|first2=Ann|date=11 March 2008|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4149-9|pages=47|language=en}} She was a member of the Kanoun-e-Banovan and supported the Kashf-e hijab reform against compulsory hijab (veiling).Hamideh Sedghi, "FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iii. IN THE PAHLAVI PERIOD," Encyclopaedia Iranica, IX/5, pp. 492-498, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/feminist-movements-iii (accessed on 30 December 2012).

Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri died on 1980 and was buried in section 34 of Behesht-e Zahra (Row 183, Number 35).Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani: [http://www.feministschool.com/english/IMG/pdf/Iranian_Women_s_equality_calendar-2.pdf Iranian Women's Equality Calendar]

After her death, her daughter Mehrangiz Mallah (fa) compiled and edited her mother's oral memoirs, which were the first oral memoir of a woman who lived in pre-Revolution Iran to be published and provide important testimony on their lives.{{Cite web|title=The History of Iranian Women's First Oral Memoirs|url=http://oral-history.ir/?page=post&id=4074/|access-date=13 December 2020|website=Oral History}}

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• Interview: [http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/14129A1.html Mahlagha Mallah discussing her mother's life]

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Category:1889 births

Category:1981 deaths

Category:Iranian feminists

Category:Mass media people from Tehran

Category:Iranian women's rights activists

Category:People of Qajar Iran

Category:20th-century Iranian educators

Category:20th-century Iranian women writers

Category:Burials at Behesht-e Zahra

Category:People of Pahlavi Iran