With the exception of the Westernized and secularized upper and middle classes, Iranian society before the Revolution practiced public segregation of the sexes

With the exception of the Westernized and secularized upper and middle classes, Iranian society before the Revolution practiced public segregation of the sexes. Women generally wore the chador when in public and indoors when males not related to them were present. The majority of Iranians envisioned an ideal society as one in which women stayed at home, performing domestic tasks associated with managing a household and rearing children. Men worked in the public sphere—fields, factories, bazaars, and offices. Deviations from this ideal, especially in the case of women, tended to reflect adversely on the reputation of the family. Gender segregation also was practiced in the public education system, which maintained separate schools for boys and girls at the elementary through secondary levels.

By the late 1960s, the majority attitudes on the segregation of women clashed sharply with the views and customs of the secularized upper and middle classes, especially in Tehran. For these latter groups, mixed gatherings, both public and private, became the norm. During the Pahlavi era, the government was the main promoter of change with respect to social attitudes toward gender segregation. It banned the wearing of the chador at official functions and encouraged mixed participation in a variety of public gatherings. One result was to bring the government into conflict with non-elite social values, which were defended by the Shia clergy.

Among the ideas imported into Iran from the West was the notion that women should participate in the public sphere. The Pahlavi government encouraged women’s education and their participation in the labor force. After Reza Shah banned the chador in 1936, veiling came to be perceived among the elite and secular middle-class women, who were a minority among female Iranians, as a symbol of oppression. Before the Revolution, Iranian society already was polarized between the values of the majority of women and those of a minority who embraced American and European feminist values. Some of the latter had a genuine interest in improving the status of all women. As early as 1932, such women held a meeting of the Oriental Feminine Congress in Tehran at which they called for the right of women to vote, compulsory education for both boys and girls, equal salaries for men and women, and an end to polygyny. The White Revolution reforms of 1963 included granting women the right to vote and to hold public office (see The Post-Mossadeq Era and the Shah’s White Revolution, ch.