The Evolution of the Veiling Discourse from the Constitutional Revolution to the End of Pahlavi I Era (1906 - 1941)

Aalami, Zeynab; Hosseinzadeh Yazdi, Mahdi; Zaeri, Qasem

doi:10.22059/jstmt.2025.382237.1734

Document Type : Research Article / Original Article

Authors

¹ Ph.D. Candidate in Muslim Social Knowledge, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

² Associate Professor of Islamic Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

³ Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jstmt.2025.382237.1734

Abstract

The issue of unveiling has been one of the most pressing socio-cultural challenges in Iranian society. Beyond its incompatibility with Iranian-Islamic cultural values, it has generated significant social, political, and national consequences for the Islamic Republic. Understanding this phenomenon within its historical context—particularly its early manifestations in Iran—is therefore of critical importance. This study explores the discursive transformations of veiling from the Constitutional Revolution to the end of the reign of Reza Shah, within the framework of discursive conflict. The study adopts a discourse analysis approach grounded in the theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The findings indicate that during the early Constitutional era, a pro-veiling discourse prevailed. However, anti-veiling voices increasingly framed Western-style dress reform around four central themes: freedom, chastity, education, and religious reinterpretation. This framing destabilized the dominant discourse, leading to the emergence of five defensive sub-discourses: Qur’anic-jurisprudential veiling, Weakness-Oriented veiling, Woman-Centered veiling, socio-political veiling, and Legalistic veiling. A central binary emerged—"domesticity and veiling" versus "social participation and unveiling"—reflecting the deepening discursive polarization. With the rise of the Pahlavi regime, the anti-veiling discourse gained institutional support, especially through civil registration and public education systems. The 1935 Mandatory Unveiling Law effectively neutralized public debate by coercively imposing one side of the discourse.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Intellectual, historical and civilizational traditions of Muslim social thought

References

Abiar, Z., Karami-Pour, A., & Sharifi, S. (2020). Theoretical challenges of hijab in post-revolutionary Iran: An analysis of existing approaches to hijab and modesty. Journal of Islam and Social Sciences, 12(23), 238-217.

Akhundzadeh, M. F. (1955). Letters of Kamal al-Dawlah to Prince Jalal al-Dawlah. Tehran: Bina.

Adamiyat, F. (1978). Thoughts of Mirza Agha Khan Kermani. Tehran: Payam.

Ashna, H. (1992). Violence and culture. Tehran: The National Library and Archives of Iran.

Emami, S. M. (2013). A critical framework for policy research on the issue of hijab in the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the theory and model of secularization of Iranian society. Journal of Islam and Social Studies, 1(1).

Farmanfarmaian, M. M. (2004). Under the father's gaze - Memoirs of Mehrmah Farmanfarmaian from the inner courtyard. Tehran: Kavir.

Jafarian, R. (2001). Hijabi treatises: Sixty years of scientific efforts against the innovation of unveiling. Qom: Dalil Ma.

Jafarian, R. (2004). The story of veiling in Iran before the revolution. Tehran: Islamic Revolution Documents Center.

Javadani Moghaddam, M. (2019). An examination of the evolution of hijab discourse in the sphere of politics and culture in Iran. Nashriyeh Sepehr Siasat, 6(2), 133-210.

Javadi, H., Marashi, M., & Shekarloo, S. (1992). The encounter of women and men in the Qajar era (Two treatises on the education of women and the faults of men). Tehran: Jahan.

Jorgensen, M., & Phillips, L. (2022). Discourse theory and method (H. Jalili, Trans.). Tehran: Nashr Ney.

Khalili, M. (2006). Hijab and the thought of hijab. Tehran: Pazhooheshgah Farhang va Andisheh Islami.

Kermani, M. A. (2000). Three letters (B. Choubineh, Ed.). Essen: Nima Verlag.

Kermani, M. A. (n.d.). One hundred speeches (M. J. Mahjoub, Ed.). Bijaa: Sherkat Ketab.

Kasraei, M. S., & Pouzeshi Shirazi, A. (2009). Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory as an effective tool in understanding and explaining political phenomena. POLITICAL QUARTERLY, 39(3), 678-713.

Motahari, M. (2009). Sexual ethics in Islam and the West. Tehran: Sadra.

Motahari, M. (2016). The issue of hijab. Tehran: Sadra.

Mousavi, S. (2021). A theoretical introduction to critique of historiography on women. Tehran: Golazin.

Najmabadi, A. (2017). Women with moustaches and men without beards: Gender anxieties in Iranian modernity (A. Kamel & I. Vaghefi, Trans.). Tehran: Tisa.

Rezvani, H. (1983). The decrees of Agha Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri. Tehran: Tarikh Iran.

Rowbotham, S. (2011). Women in struggle: Feminism and social action (H. Sabaghi, Trans.). Tehran: Shirazeh.

Salami, G., & Najmabadi, A. (2010). Nahzat Nesvan Shargh. Tehran: Shirazeh.

Salah, M. (2020). The unveiling of hijab: Backgrounds, consequences, and reactions. Tehran: Institute for Political Studies and Research.

Sadeghi, F. (2017). The unveiling: A re-reading of a modern intervention. Tehran: Negah Mosaer.

Shakib Rokh, F., & Zandieh, H. (2021). The evolution of the thought of hijab protesters from the Nasserite era to the second Pahlavi (1227-1320 SH). Islam History, 44, 62-87.

Sanasarian, E. (2005). The women's rights movement in Iran: Revolt, decline, and suppression from 1280 to the 1979 revolution (N. A. Khorasani, Trans.). Tehran: Akhtaran.

Taj al-Saltaneh. (2023). Memoirs of Taj al-Saltaneh (M. Hosseini, Ed.). Tehran: Chehel Kalagh.

Talebov Tabrizi, A. (2018). Masalek al-Mohseneen. Tehran: Entesharat Omid Farda.

Torkaman, M. (1983). Letters, announcements, and newspapers of the martyred Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri. Tehran: Rasa.

Tavakoli-Targhi, M. (2016). Native modernity and rethinking history. Tehran: Pardis Danesh.

Vafaee, E., Kaveh, A., & Saeed, S. (2019). Discourse analysis of the hijab issue using PADM method in the press of the constitutional era (With emphasis on the Iranshahr newspaper). Journal of Islamic Studies of Women and Family, 10, 173-192.

Zaeri, G. (2014). The Archaeology of Bi-Hijābi (Unveiling) in Iran. Woman in Development & Politics, 12(2), 153-186.

Zaeri, G., & Yousefinejad, F. (2019). An examination of the revision of the "unveiling" law in the period of 1320-1322 focusing on individual and institutional resistance. Woman in Development & Politics, 17(2), 173-192.

Zahed, S. S., & Kaveh, M. (2012). National Discourses on Dress in Iran. Quarterly of Social Studies and Research in Iran, 1(4), 49-74.

Zahedi, Z. (2011). Factors and consequences of unveiling. The Islamic Journal Of Women and The Family, 4(9), 131.

Journal of Social Theories of Muslim Thinkers

The Evolution of the Veiling Discourse from the Constitutional Revolution to the End of Pahlavi I Era (1906 - 1941)

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 1
March 2025
Pages 42-63

The Evolution of the Veiling Discourse from the Constitutional Revolution to the End of Pahlavi I Era (1906 - 1941)

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 1March 2025Pages 42-63

Volume 15, Issue 1
March 2025
Pages 42-63