The Lifestyle of Powerful Women in the Court of Qajar Period and Their Influence on the Spread of Western European Civilization in Iran

Abstract

In the patriarchal system of the Qajar period (before the constitutional revolution), three groups of women were engaged in acting in the family and society within the framework of the traditional Iranian system. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of powerful women of the court in spreading the new knowledge of Europe and the manifestations of its modernization such as the new school, newspaper, hospital, etc. in Iran. With a descriptive-analytical approach and using library resources, based on the analysis of themes in historical sources and documents, a collection of travelogues have been evaluated and analyzed. The first group, women with influence, elites and those with authority in the political and economic arena, including the mother, daughters and wives of the king and relatives of the court, whose actions have been influential in the internal situation of the harem or some social-political affairs. The second group of nomadic women, who played an important role in economic affairs. The third group is the mass of women in the society, although their family and individual lifestyles are not well documented, but their potential was effective in major social events and they interfered in the domain of the kingdom's power. Women (rich or poor) spent most of their lives in the private world of the family. They spent and dedicated their whole lives to the family. In spite of gaining literacy and education and acting as an interventionist in the political situation of the country, the influential women of the court did not take any action to spread the new sciences of Europe and its scientific manifestations such as school, newspaper, etc. and they did not even pay attention to the colonial aspect of the West in Iran.