Mahlaqa Mallah

Mahlagha Mallah (‎; 21 September 1917 – 8 November 2021) was an Iranian environmental activist and librarian, who founded the Women's Society Against Environmental Pollution. She was referred to as the "Mother of Iran's Environment".

Early life Mallah was born on 21 September 1917, in a caravanserai close to Now Kandeh, whilst her parents were travelling to Mashhad on a pilgrimage. Her mother Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri, and her grandmother Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi, were both women's rights activists in Iran.

Education and career After studying philosophy, social sciences and sociology at the University of Tehran, Mallah was awarded an MA in social sciences in 1958.

After Mallah retired in 1977, she began work researching pollution in Tehran, and started by visiting houses and knocking on people's doors to talk to them about pollution and other environmental issues. She founded the organisation the Women's Society Against Environmental Pollution, which was the first non-governmental environmental organisation in Iran. It was founded in 1993 and registered with the Ministry of the Interior in 1995. As a campaigning organisation, by 2012 it had become the largest environmental group in Iran.

In 2009, the Society published a report entitled "Water Rights" and stressed the urgent need for the conservation of wetland habitats in Iran. This includes work in the Zayandeh Rud region.

Awards Personality of the Year – "Natural Heritage and Environment" (2010)

Legacy As a result of her activism, Mallah became known as the "Mother of Iran's Environment". She has been described as an ecofeminist, since her outlook on environmental issues emphasises that women need to be central in any kind of environmentalism.

Mallah died on 8 November 2021, at the age of 104.