Homa Darabi ( fa, هما دارابی; 1940–1994) was an Iranian
pediatrician
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...
, academic, and political activist affiliated with the
Nation Party of Iran
Party of the Iranian Nation (or Nation Party of Iran, Iran Nation Party; fa, حزب ملت ایران, Ḥezb-e Mellat-e Irān) is "a small opposition" party in Iran advocating establishment of a secular democracy. Although the party is technical ...
. She is known for her political self-immolation in protest to the
compulsory hijab, which led to her death.
Biography
Darabi was born in 1940
in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
. Following the end of high school, she entered
Medical School of University of Tehran in 1959.
In 1960, she was detained for an organizing a student demonstration in favor of the
National Front.
She married her classmate Manoochehr Keyhani in 1963.
After completing her studies, she practiced in the village Bahmanieh, located in northern Iran.
Darabi went to the United States to continue her studies, and obtained a pediatrics specialist degree in psychology.
She returned to Iran in 1976 and was employed as a professor of child psychiatry at
University of Tehran
The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
, while she became once again politically active against the
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...
.
She also taught at the
National University
A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state.
Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...
(later known as Shahid Beheshti University).
She was dismissed from her position for "non-adherence to ''
hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
''" in December 1991. Although a tribunal in May 1993 overturned the decision, the university refused to restore her position.
Death
As a sign of protest, Darabi
immolated herself by pouring petrol over her head on 21 February 1994, after she had taken her ''hijab'' off in a public thoroughfare near
Tajrish
Tajrish ( fa, تجريش, , also romanized as Tajrīš) is a neighbourhood of Tehran, capital of Iran. Administratively it is in Shemiranat County, Tehran Province. It used to be a village and later was absorbed into the city of Tehran.
The Tajri ...
.
She died from the burns in a hospital the next day.
See also
*
2017–2019 Iranian protests against compulsory hijab
Girls of Enghelab ( fa, دختران انقلاب) was a series of protests against compulsory hijab in Iran. The protests were inspired by Vida Movahed ( fa, ویدا موحد), an Iranian woman known as the Girl of Enghelab Street ( fa, دخت ...
*
Death of Mahsa Amini
On 16 September 2022, the 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini,; ku, ژینا ئەمینی, Jîna Emînî died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious mor ...
*
Guidance Patrol
The Guidance Patrol ( fa, گشت ارشاد, translit=gašt-e eršād) or morality police is a vice squad / Islamic religious police in the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 2005 with the task of arresting ...
, Iran's morality police
*
List of political self-immolations
This is a list of notable people who committed suicide by setting themselves on fire for political reasons. Non-political self-immolations are not included in the list.
List Before 1900
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s ...
*
Zahra Bani Yaghoub
Zahra Bani Yaghoub ( fa, زهرا بنییعقوب, also mentioned in the media as Zahra Bani Ameri; 16 October 1980 – 13 October 2007) was an Iranian medical doctor. She died in a prison in Hamedan after she was arrested by the Guidance P ...
Further reading
*
References
Iranian pediatricians
Iranian feminists
Suicides by self-immolation
1940 births
1994 deaths
Hijab
Suicides in Iran
Iranian psychiatrists
Iranian women physicians
Women psychiatrists
Nation Party of Iran politicians
National Front (Iran) student activists
20th-century Iranian physicians
Iranian expatriates in the United States
University of Tehran alumni
University of Tehran faculty
Shahid Beheshti University faculty
Politicians from Tehran
1994 suicides
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