Second Eastern Women's Congress, also known as Second General Congress of Oriental Women and Second Oriental Women's Congress was an international women's conference which took place in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, 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 th ...
in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...
in between 27 November and 2 December 1932. It was the second international conference to unite women's organizations of the Middle East, following the
First Eastern Women's Congress First Eastern Women's Congress, also known as First General Congress of Oriental Women and First Oriental Women's Congress was an international women's conference which took place in Damascus in Syria between 3 July and 10 July 1930. The conference ...
.
Life
The conference was arranged with royal support by Iran's leading women's rights organisation
Jam'iyat-e Nesvan-e Vatankhah
Jam'iyat-e Nesvân-e Vatankhâh ( fa, جمعیت نسوان وطنخواه, meaning "Patriotic Women's League of Iran" or "Society of Patriotic Women") (1922–1933), was one of the most active organizations in the Women's rights movement in I ...
, under the leadership of
Ashraf Pahlavi
Ashraf ol-Molouk Pahlavi ( fa, اشرفالملوک پهلوی, , 26 October 1919 – 7 January 2016) was the twin sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran (Persia), and a member of the Pahlavi dynasty. She was considered the "pow ...
, with participants from the Arab World and Eastern Asia.
Ashraf Pahlavi
Ashraf ol-Molouk Pahlavi ( fa, اشرفالملوک پهلوی, , 26 October 1919 – 7 January 2016) was the twin sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran (Persia), and a member of the Pahlavi dynasty. She was considered the "pow ...
served as the honorary president of the Congress and
Sediqeh Dowlatabadi
Sediqeh Dowlatabadi ( fa, صدیقه دولتآبادی ; 1882 in Isfahan – July 30, 1961 in Tehran) was an Iranian feminist activist and journalist and one of the pioneering figures in the Persian women's movement.
On one of the occasions wh ...
as its secretary. Šayḵ-al-Molk Owrang of Lebanon served as its President, and Fāṭema Saʿīd Merād of Syria, Ḥonayna Ḵūrīya of Egypt and Mastūra Afšār of Persia belonged to the organization committee.
Representatives from Afghanistan, Australia, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Lebanon, Persia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Zanzibar participated in the Congress. The congress discussed the situation of women in their respective countries, and debated issues were the particularly bad situation of women in the Muslim world, specifically the illiteracy and the oppression within marriage of women.
The congress approved of a resolution with 22 subjects, recommending reforms family law, Islamic law, women's suffrage, a ban against polygamy and prostitution and access to education, work and equal salary for women and the eradication of illiteracy among female adults.
[Hamideh Sedghi, “FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iii. IN THE PAHLAVI PERIOD,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, IX/5, pp. 492-498, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/feminist-movements-iii (accessed on 30 December 2012).]
See also
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All-Asian Women's Conference
The All-Asian Women's Conference (AAWC) was a women's conference convened in Lahore in January 1931. It was the first pan-Asian women's conference of its kind. Dominated by Indian organizers, "the AAWC was a vehicle for Indian women to voice thei ...
References
1932 conferences
1932 in Iran
Events in Tehran
Women's suffrage
Women's conferences
1932 in women's history
20th century in Iran
Women in Iran