Unknown history of Shahnaz Street in Tabriz

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Unknown history of Shahnaz Street in Tabriz

2024.03.29, 16:39

One of the main streets of Tabriz is Shahnaz Street. However, many don’t know what this street represents.

Gunaz.tv

“I wonder if there aren’t 100 men in Tehran who can spend only 100 Iranian tomans each, or in other words, the cost of one or several nights of drinking, for the revival of this dead nation by allocating it to the education of women?!” Shahnaz Rushdieh.

Shahnaz said these words about the importance of women’s education in an article he wrote in the fall of 1920.

At that time, as a 20-year-old brave girl, she fought against anti-feminism and patriarchal society in Iran by publishing articles in the “Namei Zanan” newspaper, which means Women’s Letter.

Shahnaz was born in Tehran in 1901. Shahnaz Azad, who took her husband’s surname, was the eldest daughter of the famous Mirza Hassan Roshdieh. Mirza Hassan Roshdieh is considered one of the personalities of South Azerbaijan who introduced some modern teaching methods in Iran, especially in teaching the alphabet. These methods are still used in Iran’s primary schools.

Mirza Hassan Roshdieh was the principal of a primary school at a time when Iranian society despised women and education.

In these days, Mirza Hassan Roshdieh put Shahnaz and his other daughter to school in boy’s clothes and told them not to tell anyone that they were girls.

When Shahnaz was 16 years old, she married the well-known journalist Abolqasem Azad Maraghi.

Her husband didn’t oppose her education and social activities and even created more ground for her activities.

In 1920, she and her husband decided to publish the newspaper Women’s Letter.

The newspaper, as an advanced and courageous publication of its time, criticized patriarchal society.

Shahnaz wrote the main articles of the newspaper when she was only 19 years old and wrote in the first issue of the newspaper:

“What prevents us from moving forward on the highway of development when we have our seeing eyes, hearing ears, and healthy feet? – superstition and reactionary.”

Following her father's example, Shahnaz founded Sitara Girls' School and Shahnaz Kindergarten in 1951.

Shahnaz Azad, one of the female personalities of Azerbaijan, died in 1961.

The famous Shahnaz Street in Tabriz is named after him.

It should be noted that the Iranian authorities changed the name of Shahnaz Street. The street is currently named Shariati. However, people ignore this name and call the street by its real name.

GUNAZ.TV

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