Controlling Raiders and Banning the Veil

This chapter examines women’s experiences of forced modernization under Reza Shah, as this ruler sought to recast his people to resemble the citizens of Western great powers. It explores the shah’s efforts to centralize authority, and to legally impose Westernized standards of dress on both men and women. At the same time, he embarked on a campaign to militarily destroy the independence of nomadic tribes. The paternal state usurped the authority of tribal leaders over their communities, and the old authority of fathers or husbands over their wives and daughters. The chapter considers how these efforts to “save mother Iran” and to ban the veil evoked both enthusiasm and resistance from women.