Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri

Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri (; 1889 – 3 January 1981) was an Iranian women's rights activist, journalist and educator. She campaigned against the enforced wearing of the chador and supported the Kashf-e hijab.

Early life Khadijeh Afzal Khanoom was born in 1889 in Tehran, Qajar Iran and was the fifth child of Bibi Khanum Astarabadi, a women's rights activist, and Musa Khan Vaziri. 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. Her siblings included: Hasan Ali Khan Wazir, Ali-Naqi Vaziri and Mowlud Khanoom who was a teacher like their mother.

When she reached the age of 16, she taught the girls at Doshizegan Elementary School, which her mother had founded, becoming one of the first teachers in Iran's first girls' school. Their children included: Mahlagha Mallah, Amir Hushang, Husayn'ali, Mehrangiz, Khusraw, and Taymur, who died when he was 11 months old.

Career In addition to teaching, Vaziri began to write articles for newspapers on women's issues. One of her most notable articles was written for the paper Shafaq-e-Sorkh.

Vaziri also designed her own clothes. During the 1930s, whilst many women began to stop wearing face veils, wearing the chador remained popular. Vaziri advocated for a change in fashion alongside Sediqeh Dowlatabadi, and she designed outfits where your arms could move more freely as a result. She was a member of the Kanoun-e-Banovan and supported the Kashf-e hijab reform against compulsory hijab (veiling).

Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri died on 1980 and was buried in section 34 of Behesht-e Zahra (Row 183, Number 35).

Legacy 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.