Women in Iran

linear-Elamite women inscription. Late 3rd Millennium BC silver cup, Marvdasht.

Archaeological excavations at Shahr-e Sukhteh ("Burnt City"), a prehistoric settlement in the Sistan-Baluchistan province of southeastern Iran, have revealed that women in the region during the 4th to 3rd millennium BC possessed high status. Of the seals discovered in graves there, 90% were in possession of women,[7] who made up over 60% of the population.[8] The distribution of these seals – instruments of trade and government which represented economic and administrative control – revealed these women to have been a powerful group in their prehistoric society.[7]

The early Achaemenid-era Persepolis fortification and treasury tablets refers to women in three different terms: mutu, irti and duksis.[9] The first refers to ordinary (non-royal) women; the second to unmarried members of the royal family; and the last duksis to married women of royalty. Such differentiated terminology shows the significance of marital status and of a woman's relationship to the king. The tablets also reveal that women of the royal household traveled extensively and often personally administered their own estates.[9] The queen consort and her ladies-in-waiting are known to have played polo against the emperor and his courtiers.[10] The only limits on the extent of the authority exercised by the king's mother were set by the monarch himself.[11]

In the tablets, "non-royals and the ordinary workers are mentioned by their rank in the specific workgroup or workshops they were employed. The rations they received are based on skill and the level of responsibility they assumed in the workplace. The professions are divided by gender and listed according to the amount of ration. Records indicate that some professions were undertaken by both sexes while others were restricted to either male or female workers. There are male and female supervisors at the mixed workshops as evident by the higher rations they have received with little difference in the number of rations between the two sexes. There are also occasions where women listed in the same category as men received fewer rations and vice versa. Female managers have different titles presumably reflecting their level of skill and rank. The highest-ranking female workers in the texts are called arashshara (great chief). They appear repeatedly in the texts, were employed at different locations, and managed large groups of women, children, and sometimes men working in their units. They usually receive high rations of wine and grains exceeding all the other workers in the unit including the males."[9] Pregnant women also received higher rations than others. Women with newborn children also received extra rations for one month.

A few experts say that it was Cyrus the Great who, twelve centuries before Islam, established the custom of covering women to protect their chastity. According to their theory, the veil passed from the Achaemenids to the Hellenistic Seleucids. They, in turn, handed it to the Byzantines, from whom the Arab conquerors turned it into the hijab, transmitting it over the vast reaches of the Muslim world.[12]

The Sassanid princess Purandokht, daughter of Khosrau II, ruled the Persian empire for almost two years before resigning. During the Sassanian dynasty, many of the Iranian soldiers who were captured by Romans were women who were fighting along with the men.[13]

Persian women are depicted in many masterpieces of Persian miniatures.[14] These are often used as sources to "trace through the sequence of women's fashion from earlier periods".[15]

At the Battle of Ctesiphon (363) the victorious Roman soldiers prized young Persian women, seizing them as war booty.[16]

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  A bust from The National Museum of Iran of Queen Musa, wife of Phraates IV of Parthia
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  The Persian lady portrayed in five medallions on this bowl has a hairstyle that suggests that she may have been a queen in the Sassanid royal family at the time of King Narseh.
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  A woman as depicted in Perso-Roman floor mosaic in Bishapur
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  Khusraw Discovers Shirin Bathing, from Pictorial Cycle of Eight Poetic Subjects, mid-18th century; Brooklyn Museum

During the Qajar period, women played the role of reserve labor, which was important in the economy. Their work always benefited the family, businesses owner, and the state. Rural and lower-class women were mostly involved in carpet weaving, embroidery, and the production of clothing, textile, butter, fruits, and tea. They also worked in silk and cotton manufacturing as well as other handicrafts. Women were also employed at mortuaries, public bathhouses, and in more affluent houses as maids, wet nurses, and nannies.[17]  In more populous cities women worked as entertainers, dancers, or prostitutes. Although many work opportunities were open for women their wages were lower. Women that worked in textiles during this time period earned an average of one-third of what men did.[18] Even though women were given the ability to earn a wage, they still did not have many rights, it was still possible for rural girls to be sold by the head of their families.

This time period, especially between 1905 and 1911, was the start of women's 'awakening'[19] in Persia. It can be suggested that this awakening can be defined as a women's movement and feminism. Women began to become more involved with the public sphere, and Nasir al-Din Shah's harem participated in the 1891 tobacco revolt. However, it was not just wealthy women who were involved but also the common women. Washerwomen donated savings, along with wealthy women's jewelry contributions, to help sponsor a national bank. The storming[19] of Majilis (parliament) in 1911 by women showed an unprecedented political awareness of women as well as a public action. Generally, there were precedents that restricted women's actions, where they were often portrayed as prisoners because of their gender inferiority.

Often there is an orientalist view of Qajar women before the revolution. Badr al-Moluk Bamdad, wife of Ahmad Shah Qajar classic work, From Darkness to Light, published two years before the Islamic Revolution (1968-1969) refers to Persian history before the tobacco revolt as "a century of darkness",[20] in which women are "poor creatures"[20] and "powerless dolls"[20] who are secluded from society while being concealed "under thick coverings and dependent like parasites".[20] Bamdad also claimed that women were "prisoners, confined in the home or under the veil and the cloak"[20]"

Sima Bahar in an article titled, A Historical Background to the Women's Movement in Iran identified that the constitutional revolution period was the first occasion women participated with men in public action. She considers that during the Qajar period "women's activities were solely limited to the household; if they were active in production at all such as in villages, the production was for the household. Women of the upper class lead an even more secluded life... they were only allowed to go out accompanied by men."[21]

During the Qajar dynasty (1789–1925), Malek Jahan Khanom as queen mother exerted serious political influence during the reign of her son, from 1848 until her death in 1873.

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  "Malek Jahan Khanom, Mahd-e Olia", wife and mother of Qajar rulers

Female Iranian PhDs in front of Tehran University's reactor, 1968. Text: "A quarter of Iran's Nuclear Energy scientists are women".

The Pahlavi Shahs were the rulers of Iran between 1925 and 1979 and they introduced many reforms concerning women's rights. An example of an early reform introduced by Reza Shah was the Kashf-e hijab, the "forced unveiling of women by a special decree on January 8, 1936, which, as the name suggests, involved the police force pulling the hijab away even from religious women, by force."[22] Women's involvement in society in general increased. Iranian women increasingly participated in the economy, the education sector, and in the workforce. Levels of literacy were also improved. Examples of women's involvement: women acquired high official positions, such as ministers, artists, judges, scientists, athletes, etc.

Under Reza Shah's successor Mohammad Reza Shah many more significant reforms were introduced. For example, in 1963, the Shah granted female suffrage, and soon after women were elected to the Majlis (the parliament) and the upper house, and appointed as judges and ministers in the cabinet.[22] In 1967 Iranian family law was also reformed which improved the position of women in Iranian society. It was included in the civil code and was designed to protect wives, children and female divorcees. The general thrust of the reforms was to promote equality between men and women in society.

The Family Protection Laws of 1967 and 1973 required a husband to go to court to divorce rather than the proclamation of the triple talaq, "I divorce thee" three times, as stipulated by traditional sharia law. It allowed a wife to initiate divorce and required the first wife's permission for a husband to take a second wife. Child custody was left to new family protection courts rather than automatically granted to the father. The minimum age at which a female could marry was raised from 13 to 15 in 1967 and to 18 in 1975.[23]

Throughout the Pahlavi period, female advancements in education and labor were significant. From 1965 to 1966, the percentage of illiterate women dropped by 11%. However, this decrease in illiteracy had mainly taken place in the urban areas, which saw a decrease of 20% in illiteracy, while rural areas, by contrast, saw a decrease of 3%. This is most likely due to the increase of educational centers and universities across Iranian cities, mainly in Tehran and Abadan, during this time period.[24] The increase in education among females led to an increase in female participation in various labor fields throughout the 1956–1966 period. Women began entering fields such as biology, agricultural studies, medicine, teaching, law, and economics among other fields, giving them more significant political power. In urban centers, the employment of women in Abadan, Tabriz, and Esfahan increased, with the latter two seeing significant increases in female labor. Interestingly during this period, female employment in Tehran dropped slightly.[24]

Decreasing fertility rate shows Iranian women are comparatively less eager to give birth.

Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution Iran became an Islamic republic. During the era of the post-Revolution rule, Iranian women had more opportunities in some areas and more restrictions in others. One of the striking features of the revolution was the large-scale participation of women from traditional backgrounds in demonstrations leading up to the overthrow of the monarchy. The Iranian women who had gained confidence and higher education under the Pahlavi era participated in demonstrations against the Shah to topple the monarchy. The culture of education for women was established by the time of the revolution so that even after the revolution, large numbers of women entered civil service and higher education,[25] and, in 1996, 14 women were elected to the Islamic Consultative Assembly.

The leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini led to many paradoxical issues for women. Women gained much influence in certain areas, but still faced many political obstacles to equality with men. For example, women were allowed to serve in the military, often in paramilitary groups, but were restricted in many fields of study in school. After the breakout of the Iran–Iraq War, women continued to gain political power. Women were mobilized both on the front lines and at home in the workplace. They participated in basic infantry roles, but also in intelligence programs and political campaigning. During the height of the Iran-Iraq War, women made up a large portion of the domestic workforce, replacing men who were fighting, injured, or dead.[26]

Khomeini often expressed appreciation for women's issues after he took power. In May 1979, Khomeini addressed his audience and spoke about Fatimah: "After the death of her father, Fatimah (peace be upon her), lived for seventy-five days. She was in this world, overcome with sadness and grief. Gabriel, the Trusted Spirit, came to visit and console her and tell her of future events." So, according to this tradition, in these seventy-five days that she had contact with Gabriel, he came and went many times. I do not believe that anyone else except the great prophets has had such an experience, in which for seventy-five days Gabriel, the Trusted Spirit, came and went and spoke of things that would take place in the future, that would happen to her ancestors in the future."[27] The Ayatollah spoke fondly of Fatimah as a role model for women. He said that even though she was visited by the Angel Gabriel, this is not what made her special. To him, her admirable qualities were twofold and supposedly represented by the visits from Gabriel: her special spiritual status and her excellent moral character. He continued to explain that Fatimah could have been born with this spiritual status or Fatimah could have gone through a kind of unique mystical experience. This is why the Ayatollah believed she represented the ideal female role model. Fatimah's moral excellence is observed in three interconnected activities: struggle, inspiring men, and suffering.[28] Fatimah inspired her husband as a devout Muslim. Khomeini draws parallels to this inspiration with women of Iran and how they should strive to follow their religious calling like Fatimah.

While during the revolution, the veil was worn and seen as a symbol of protest many women were alarmed when talk of the hijab being compulsory was discussed. This resulted in the International Women's Day Protests in Tehran, 1979 against compulsory hijab. The topic was inflated when Ayatollah Khomeini was quoted to say that he preferred to see women in modest Islamic clothing.[29] In 1981 veiling was made compulsory and cosmetics were banned, harsh punishments were also introduced by the morality police such as the removal of lipstick by a razor blade.[29] In the early 1980s women were banned from acting as judges and were discouraged from becoming lawyers. The Islamic government repealed the Family Protection Laws of 1967 and 1973, which restricted polygamy, allowed women the right to divorce, and raised the minimum age for marriage. The regime banned contraception and lowered the marriage age of girls from 15 to 9. They also banned women from various fields of study and professions.

After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, many of the restrictions on women were lifted. The government tried to stabilize population growth by distributing contraceptives often for free of charge. This caused the fertility rate to decline from 3.2 to 2.3 children per woman, which was one of the lowest rates in the Middle East.[29]  In 1992, the High Council of the Integration Revolution adopted a set of Employment Policies for women, that encouraged the integration of women into the labor force while still emphasizing the importance of family roles for women.  Women were encouraged to enter gynecology, pharmacology, midwifery, and laboratory work. Although they continued to be prevented by certain professors as 'Islamically inappropriate'. In 1990 the field of law was open to women and they were permitted in the Special Civic Courts, although they cannot serve as judges.[30]

After the death of Khomeini, more practical reforms under President Rafsanjani for women began. Rafsanjani asserted that in Islam, "There are no barriers to the education of women in any field." The three major fields which Rafsanjani focused on were education, family planning, health, and marriage. Statistics from the 1986/87 years show that female admissions into schools of dentistry, audiology, statistics, optometry, radiology, and radiotherapy were on par with men. According to the religious-political leaders, it is believed that a woman in Iran can be both traditional and modern at the same time, this is instilled in the education they receive. Meaning that a woman's central role is in the home, taking care of children, their family and house duties, while also being able to go out into the social world and create a public life but not deteriorating any social standing of her family. The restriction of the home creates a traditional private realm for the woman while the freedom of going out creates a modern social presence. The Islamic Republic had never intended to purposely bind a woman to her home and have her fulfill wifely and motherly duties, however, it is in the religious aspect of the republic that this was done. Islam does not prohibit women from public life however it is the political and cultural climate of Iran that encourages women to practice a private domestic life. Many schools are now inspiring young girls to prepare for tomorrow, as a mother and a wife and as active figures in the involvement of social and political affairs. However, it is evident that the Education Plan of the Islamic Republic has a clear divide between the education taught to boys and girls. This includes introducing the role of responsibility for a family as well as the roles of males and females in marital life. But girls are given the confidence to put themselves out into the education fields that they desire to be in while keeping a personal family life in mind.[31] Aside from education, Rafsanjani greatly focused on family planning and health across Iran, with women playing the central role. Iran's population throughout the 1980s soared despite the Iran–Iraq War, with the birthrate reaching 3.9 in 1983, double the world average. Health clinics for women were established nation-wide; by 1994, there were more than 10,000 health centers in Iran, and once-banned contraceptives were made available to women.[32] In 1986, the Majlis voted to introduce a 12-article law which allowed many marriage rights to women. These rights included prenuptial agreements, a divorced woman's right to a share of the property, and increased alimony rights. In 1992, the Council of Expediency passed a law allowing women who were "unjustly and unfairly" divorced to collect payment from the former husband for services she had performed during the course of the marriage.[33]

Late 1970s	Comparison	Early 2010s
42.33%	Literacy (15-24)[34]	97.70%
24.42%	Literacy (>15)[34]	79.23%
48,845	Students[35]	2,191,409
122,753	Graduates[36]	5,023,992
2.4%	Graduates (%)[36]	18.4%
19.7	Age at 1st marriage[37]	23.4

By 1999, Iran had 140 female publishers, enough to hold an exhibition of books and magazines published by women.[38] As of 2005, 65 percent of Iran's university students and 43 percent of its salaried workers were women.[39] As of early 2007, nearly 70 percent of Iran's science and engineering students are women.[40]

27.1% female ministers in government put Iran among first 23 countries in early 2000s,[41] 2.8–4.9% female parliamentarians in past 15 years put it among least 25 countries.[42] In 2009 Fatemeh Bodaghi became vice president for Legal Affairs and a top advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.[43] Maryam Mojtahidzadeh who runs the women's ministry was also selected as an advisor to the president.[44]

At least one observer (Robert D. Kaplan) has commented on the less traditional attitude of many women in Iran compared to other Middle Eastern countries. "In Iran, you could point a camera at a woman... and she would smile" in contrast to other more conservative places where women may mind this.[45]

There are also women in the Iranian police who deal with crimes committed by women and children.[46][47] According to opinion of Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, giving opportunity for develop woman's talents in the family and society is respecting to the woman.[48]

On May 14, 2019, the Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly approved an amendment to their nationality law, in which women married to men with a foreign nationality should request to confer nationality on children under age 18, while children and spouses of Iranian men are granted nationality automatically. However, the Guardian Council should approve the amendment.[49] On October 2, 2019, the Guardian Council agreed to sign the bill into a law,[50] taking into account the background checks on foreign fathers.[51]

In August 2019, the FFIRI lifted the ban on Iranian women's entry to football stadiums for the first time in 40 years.[52] On September 8, 2019, Sahar Khodayari self-immolated after being arrested for trying to enter a stadium. Following that incident, FIFA assured that Iranian women are able to attend stadiums starting from October 2019.[53] On October 10, 2019, more than 3,500 women attended the Azadi Stadium for a World Cup qualifier against Cambodia.[54]

The human rights organization Amnesty International has reported that it has received reports of several cases of rape of women and men detainees in Iran's prisons. On January 17, 2020, Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International's special reporter on Iran, revealed a case of sexual assault on an Iranian woman who had been detained in Tehran during the protests that erupted after the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.[55][56]

According to the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, the rate of entrepreneurship in Iran for women between the ages 18 to 64 fluctuated from 4 to 6 percent between 2008 and 2012 while their overall economic participation makes up only 13 percent of the entire economy.[87][88]

Iranian female prostitutes sometimes go to neighboring countries to work. From the 1990s, Dubai became famous in the United Arab Emirates as a place for the sex trade of Iranian women, but it was from the late 2000s that other countries neighboring Iran, including Turkey, Georgia, and Iraqi Kurdistan, had a high number of Iranian female prostitutes hosted. After this, Iranian women quickly became more popular throughout the region for prostitution. The income of Iranian female prostitutes in neighboring countries is considered high but risky.[89]

The exact number of prostitutes working in Iran is unknown, but in 2017 it was estimated that there were 228,700 female prostitutes in Iran and that the number was on the rise.[90]

Leather boots are widely used by Iranian prostitutes for findom and better control over men. Iranian men have accepted boots as a symbol of women's power. A report in 2020 showed a high number of men donated a large portion of their income to Iranian girls wearing boots.[91][92][93]

Another report in 2021, said prostitution in Iran became more widespread using the Internet and some websites listed millions of women from all over Iran.[94][95]

After the Islamic Revolution, the policy inherited from the Kashf-e hijab was turned around. Instead of being forced to remove their veil, women were now subjected to the reversed ban against unveiling, and the veil were now enforced upon all women.[109] The non-conservative women, who had worn the veil as a symbol of opposition during the revolution, had not expected veiling to become mandatory, and when the veil was first made mandatory in February 1979 it was met with protests and demonstrations by liberal and leftist women,[109] and thousands of women participated in a women's march on International Women's Day, 8 March 1979, in protest against mandatory veiling.[110] The protests resulted in the temporary retraction of mandatory veiling.[109]

When the left and the liberals were eliminated and the conservatives secured solitary control, however, veiling was enforced on all women.[109] This began with the 'Islamification of offices' in July 1980, when unveiled women were refused entry to government offices and public buildings, and banned from appearing unveiled at their work places under the risk of being fired.[111] On the streets, unveiled women were attacked by revolutionaries, and two slogans of the revolution were: "Wear a veil, or we will punch your head" and "Death to the unveiled".[112] In July 1981, an edict of mandatory veiling in public was introduced, which was followed in 1983 by an Islamic Punishment Law, introducing a punishment of 74 lashes on unveiled women.[110]^: 67 The law was enforced by members of the Islamic Revolution Committees patrolling the streets, and later by the Guidance Patrols, also called the Morality Police.

Since hijab was legally imposed on all Iranian women in 1984,[113] post revolutionary Iranian women's fashion has seen Iranian women attempt to work within the narrow confines of the Islamic modesty code, with the typical attire gradually evolving from the standard black chador to a rousari (simple headscarf) combined with other colorful elements of clothing.[114][115] In 2010, 531 young females (aged 15–29) from different cities in nine provinces of Iran participated in a study the results of which showed that 77 percent prefer stricter covering, 19 percent loose covering, and only 4 percent do not believe in veiling at all.[116] A tendency towards Western dress correlated with 66 percent of the latest non-compliance with the dress-code.[116] In Tehran, police will no longer arrest any women seen violating modest code but will instead be fined or given classes by the police.[117]

Over the past two centuries, women have played a prominent role in Persian literature, however, it mostly remained predominantly male-focused. The literary work of women was repressed for many years and even denied to them.[131] Contemporary Iranian poets such as Simin Behbahani, Forough Farrokhzad, Parvin Etesami and Mina Assadi have helped in the inclusion of woman literature in Iran. Simin Behbahani has written passionate love poems as well as narrative poetry enriched by a motherly affection for all humans.[132] She has been an advocate for individual rights regardless of anyone's gender, class or religion.[133] In addition, Behbani does not compete in her literature but instead writes and empowers both man and woman. Behbahani is president of The Iranian Writers' Association and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1997.

Contemporary authors include Simin Daneshvar, Mahshid Amirshahi, Shahrnush Pârsipur, Moniru Ravânipur and Zoya Pirzad to name a few. Daneshvar's work spans pre-Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary Iranian literature. Her first collection of short stories, Âtash-e khâmush (Fire Quenched), was published in 1948. It was the first collection of short stories published by a woman in Iran. In 1969, she published Savushun (Mourners of Siyâvash), a novel that reflected the Iranian experience of modernity during the 20th century. It was the first novel published by a woman in Iran. Daneshvar was the first president of the Iranian Writers' Association. Shahrnush Pârsipur became popular in the 1980s following the publication of her short stories. Her 1990 novel, Zanân bedûn-e Mardân (Women Without Men), addressed issues of sexuality and identity. Many people criticized her work for being too outspoken and because she challenged many traditional views such as sexual oppression, virginity, and sexuality.[134] As a result, it was ultimately banned by the Islamic Republic. Moniru Ravânipur's work includes a collection of short stories, Kanizu (The Female Slave), and her novel Ahl-e gharq (The People of Gharq). Ravânipur is known for her focus on rituals, customs, and traditions of coastal life.[135]

Sahar, known for her contributions to Persian pop music

Googoosh, One of the most popular and prolific entertainers in Iran[136]

Perhaps Qamar ol-Molouk Vaziri was the first female master of Persian music who introduced a new style of music and was praised by other masters of Persian music of the time. Several years later, Mahmoud Karimi trained women students—Arfa Atrai, Soosan Matloobi, Fatemeh Vaezi, Masoomeh Mehr-Ali, and Soosan Aslani—who later became masters of Persian traditional music. Soodabeh Salem and Sima Bina developed Iranian children's music and Iranian folk music respectively.

Innovations made by Iranian women are not restricted to Persian music. For instance, Lily Afshar is working on a combination of Persian and Western classical music.

Googoosh is one of the most famous Iranian singers. Her legacy dates back to pre-Revolutionary times in Iran, where her fame in Iran reached heights equivalent to Elvis Presley or Barbra Streisand. She became iconic when, after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, she lived unheard of for more than 20 years. In 2000, she emerged from Iran with an international tour.

Shohreh Aghdashloo, who has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Satellite Award, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award.

Iranian women have played an important role in gaining international recognition for Iranian art and in particular Iranian cinema.

Since the rise of the Iranian New Wave of Persian cinema, Iran has produced record numbers of film school graduates; each year more than 20 new directors, many of them women, make their debut films. In the last two decades, the percentage of Iranian film directors who are women has exceeded the percentage of women film directors in most Western countries.[137] The success of the pioneering director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad suggests that many women directors in Iran were working hard on films long before director Samira Makhmalbaf made the headlines. Internationally recognized figures in Persian women's cinema are Tahmineh Milani, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Zahra Dowlatabadi, Niki Karimi, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mahin Oskouei, Pari Saberi, Hana Makhmalbaf, Pouran Rakhshandeh, Shirin Neshat, Sepideh Farsi, Maryam Keshavarz, Yassamin Maleknasr, and Sara Rastegar.

Iranian writer-director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad is probably Iran's best known and certainly most prolific female filmmaker. She has established herself as the elder stateswoman of Iranian cinema with documentaries and films about social pathology. One of the best-known female film directors in the country today is Samira Makhmalbaf, who directed her first film, The Apple when she was only 17 years old. Samira Makhmalbaf won the 2000 Cannes Jury Prize for Blackboards, a film about the trials of two traveling teachers in Kurdistan.

In Persian literature one can find references to women as far back as Pre-Islamic times.[138]

And many creators of classical verse and prose were women themselves as well. One can mention Qatran Tabrizi, Rabia Balkhi, Táhirih, Simin Behbahani, Simin Daneshvar, Parvin E'tesami, Forough Farrokhzad, Mahsati and Mina Assadi in this group to name nine of them.