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Special Features

Iranian Women you Should Know: Mahlagha Mallah

March 8, 2016
IranWire Citizen Journalist
7 min read

Global and Iranian history are both closely intertwined with the lives and destinies of prominent figures. Every one of them has laid a brick on history’s wall, sometimes paying the price with their lives, men and women alike. Women have been especially influential in the past 200 years, writing much of contemporary Iranian history.

In Iran, women have increased public awareness about gender discrimination, raised the profile of and improved women’s rights, fought for literacy among women, and promoted the social status of women by counteracting religious pressures, participating in scientific projects, being involved in politics, influencing music, cinema... And so the list goes on.

This series aims to celebrate these renowned and respected Iranian women. They are women who represent the millions of women that influence their families and societies on a daily basis. Not all of the people profiled in the series are endorsed by IranWire, but their influence and impact cannot be overlooked. The articles are biographical stories that consider the lives of influential women in Iran.

IranWire readers are invited to send in suggestions for how we might expand the series. Contact IranWire via email ([email protected]), on Facebook, or by tweeting us.

* * *

An Iranian citizen journalist, who writes under a pseudonym to protect her identity, wrote the following article on the ground inside Iran.

 

Mahlagha Mallah has made a name for herself as the first female environmental activist in Iran. For 50 years, “Mother Nature,” as activists call her, has put herself at the heart of the movement.

Mallah was the granddaughter of Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi, the founder of the first school for girls in Iran, which was set up in 1906. She was born in a caravansary in 1917, as her parents traveled from Tehran to the holy city of Mashhad.

Her father, Agha Bozorg Mallah, worked for the government in a job that required the family to move frequently. As a result, Mallah spent her childhood in several towns across Iran such as Ghoochan, Mashhad, Isfahan, Hamedan and Kermanshah. Her mother, Khadijeh Afzal-Vaziri had had an unconventional childhood because of her mother Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi’s views — for example, the educational pioneer dressed her daughter in boy’s clothing when she was very young — and she passed down many of values she learned to her daughter. Both Mallah’s grandmother and mother taught her about women’s rights, and she was encouraged to study. To pursue her studies beyond tenth grade, Mallah went to live with her aunt in Tehran because at the time provincial towns did not offer girls education beyond the foundation or elementary level.

At 17, Mallah married an employee of the Ministry of Education, Hossein Abolhasani. He was a source of support for Mallah throughout their lives together.

Mallah received a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Tehran, and in 1958 was one of the first students to receive a Master’s degree in sociology. In 1966, she applied for and was awarded a grant to pursue a Ph.D at Sorbonne University in Paris, and moved to Paris to continue her studies. At the same time, she also completed a course in library management at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. After completing her Ph.D in sociology in 1968,  she returned to Iran.

The Psychology Research Institute Library at Tehran University hired Mallah as its librarian. Within a few years, she had successfully turned the library into one of the best in Iran.

It was her experience as a librarian that led to her to become interested in the environmental movement in 1973. “We had to order the books for the library from abroad,” she said in an interview. “To find books on new topics for the college I went over print catalogues from other countries. I ordered two books on topics so new and interesting that when I received them I dedicated all my time to reading them. One of the books clearly explained the dangers of environmental pollution as a result of human actions. The book impressed me and made me think that I should work to save the environment and familiarize people with the dangers of polluting the environment.” She first learned everything she could, and then taught her family. Eventually, she founded the Women’s Society Against Environmental Pollution.

 

 

The Family Factor

But part of her love for the environment and her drive to protect — much like her commitment to women’s rights — grew out out of her own family experience.  . “My mother was an environmental activist before I was,” she told Mehr News Agency. “Our house did not produce trash. Before this was important to me, it was very important for my mother,” she said in an interview. She admitted it was a different time, and that people generated less garbage day to day. But she spoke of the sense of responsibility her mother had engendered in the family: “Each person in the family had to find a solution for their garbage. We cooked just enough for our family to eat so that we would not have to throw it out.” Leftovers were given to neighbors, and anything remaining was given to the family goat. “Sometimes we would feed the leftovers to the chickens. We used very little plastic or cardboard.”

Soon after she became interested in environmental issues, Mallah began talking to and collaborating with the head of the newly formed Environmental Protection Institute of Iran. After her retirement in 1977, she worked on research projects looking at air and water pollution in Tehran. The more she discovered, the more committed she became to fighting environmental pollution, making it her mission in life.

The 1979 revolution and the subsequent Iran-Iraq war took its toll on her work, and she was forced to resume most of her activities after the war. On April 30, 1995, when she and her husband were in their seventies, Mallah announced the formation of the Women’s Society Against Environmental Pollution, which now has chapters in 14 Iranian cities. She was also the editor-in-chief of the periodical Cry of the Earth and the monthly Women, Earth and The Environment.

 

“Protecting the environment starts with each one of us”

According to a report published by Tavaana, a civil society organization dedicated to education, since its foundation, the society has trained 25,000 families in different parts of Tehran, encouraging them to separate waste from recycling, providing useful information about the environment, and educating them about the importance of healthy drinking water. Tavaana outlined how the Women’s Society Against Environmental Pollution took collective, “pragmatic and effective” decisions about what to focus on, and how to address the issue. For example, the society might decide that planning protests or writing letters to authorities at the Ministries of Education or Science are the most effective means of highlighting an issue. Or it might decide that engaging with university professors is the best approach, encouraging them to provide education about the environment.

In 2009, Mallah’s husband died. The same year the Iranian actress and documentary filmmaker Negin Kianfar made a short documentary about Mallah’s life. The film, Eve & Adam, has been shown at many environmental conferences and is also available on the BBC Persian website.

Mahlagha Mallah is now close to 100 years old, but she is still committed to her environmental activities, despite being confined to a wheelchair, planting trees and participating in discussions and meetings about the environment and women’s rights.

Her motto is: “Protecting the environment starts with each one of us.”

Tahereh Taslimi, Citizen Journalist

 

 

Also in the series:

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Jinous Nemat Mahmoudi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Simin Behbahani

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Forough Farrokhzad

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Parvin Etesami

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Farokhru Parsa

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Jamileh Sadeghi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Fatemeh Daneshvar

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Fatemeh Moghimi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Googoosh

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Sima Bina

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Tahereh Qurratu'l-Ayn

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Farah Pahlavi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Pardis Sabeti

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Mahsa Vahdat

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Maryam Mirzakhani

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Fatemeh Karroubi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Shirin Ebadi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Mehrangiz Kar

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Narges Mohammadi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Zahra Rahnavard

50 Iranian Women You Should Known: Leila Hatami

50 Iranian Women You Should Known: Golshifteh Farahani

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Susan Taslimi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: The Khomeini Women

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Nasrin Moazami

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Masih Alinejad

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Lily Amir-Arjomand

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Effat Tejaratchi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Tahmineh Milani

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Minoo Mohraz

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi

50 Iranian Women you Should Know: Nafiseh Koohnavard

 

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Assembly of Experts Back at Work

March 8, 2016
IranWire
Assembly of Experts Back at Work