Mohtaram Eskandari

Board of Governors of Association of Patriotic Women (Jam'iyat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah), Tehran, 1922–1932. Mohtaram Eskandari (; 1895 – 27 July 1924), was an Iranian intellectual and a pioneer of the Iranian women's movement. She was the co-founder and first leader of Jam'iyat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah, the first women's rights association in Iran.

As the first chairperson and publisher of the Nesvan-e Vatankhah newspaper, Eskandari provided lectures in support of women's rights, including women's education and the removal of veils. She planned marches for members of the association as well.

Biography Mohtaram was born in 1895 into a liberal, intellectually vibrant and politically active family in Tehran. Her father, Mohammad Ali Mirza Eskandari (Prince of Ali Khan), was a constitutionalist and founder of the Adamiat Society and taught at Dar ul-Funun. She first studied at home with her father and received an education in Persian and French literature under the supervision of Mirza Mohammad Ali Khan Mohaqqeqi. Eskandari and Mohaqqeqi would later marry. They both got married after a while.

As an adult, Eskandari suffered from a spinal cord injury, was teaching for some time, and served as the director of a state school for girls. Her dissatisfaction with the state of women's rights in Iran after the Constitutional Revolution, led her to establish Jam'iyat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah, "Patriotic Women's League of Iran," in 1922, which uniquely molded together feminism and Iranian nationalism.

She was disappointed with the achievements of the Constitutional Revolution for women, so in 1922,

With ten elected women, the board of directors was formed by the Patriotic Women's Association, and the same delegation elected Eskandari as the first head of the community.

The association "Patriotic Women", on the path to the goals of women's education and learning, published the magazine Nasvan–e Vatankhah (Persian: The Patriotic Women), in the wake of the launch of classes for older women. The magazine was the official organ of the community that focused on women's issues and women's rights. Its owner was Madam Molouk Eskandari, and its first director was Mohtaram Eskandari. The magazine published eleven issues over three years (from 1923 to 1926) and attracted many liberal women.

Rebel on women's wickedness "Wicked Women" , is the name given to a book by a number of opponents of women's education and freedom in Tehran. This leaflet was sold by the boys in the main squares of the city. Noor-ol-Hoda Mangeneh has written in her memories' pamphlet how insulting the leaflet was and mentioned the below:

Then one day, Mohtaram Eskandari, along with seven liberal women, went to the Toopkhaneh Square to remove the "Wicked Women" leaflets from the hands of the children there. They set the flyers on fire in the middle of the square, in the same exact place where the constitutionalists were once hanged. When those kids asked for the money of the leaflets to be given to them, Mohtaram and the other liberal women mentioned to them that they will not receive any money.

Arrested for rebellion After burning the books in the square and the children crying loudly about their burned books, police arrested the women there and took them to the commission (Police station and the first interrogation area of the accused). The women were taken to different rooms and interrogated separately. In the book "Iranian Woman from Constitutionalism to the White Revolution", Badr al-Molouk wrote:

Mohtaram Eskandari's name was recorded as the first woman who was arrested in contemporary history for rebellion in Iran.

Illness and death Mohtaram was hospitalised for some time after the arrest and advent of burning the leaflets due to the severity of the illness she had and doctors said surgery should be performed on the vertebral column's. She had had the disease ever since childhood and also she was made fun of since her back was always bent. Even while ill, she continued her efforts for women's equality and advised the women in the Patriotic Women's Association not to leave a moment of their work for women and continue gaining women's rights.

Eskandari died in July 1924, when she was 29 years old. Her death brought sorrow and sadness among those who distinguished and worked with her.

Sediqeh Dowlatabadi wrote in the deed of Mohtaram: