THE MODERN WOMAN VIS-A-VIS THE MODERN HOUSE: THE HALLMARKS OF MODERN NATIONHOOD THROUGH THE 1920s-1940s IRAN

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, with the establishment of the Nation Building program by the first Pahlavi state in Iran, the architecture of the modern house became a controversial issue. Modern house, being a nest for the modern nuclear family, was propagated by the state as the hallmark of the modern and progressive nationhood. Moreover, the state defined a new role and social position for the modern woman who - similar to the modern house-was introduced as the symbol of national modernization. This paper focuses on the ways in which the state tried to modernize both women and houses and introduced them as the hallmarks of its success through the establishment of the Nation Building program. In this regard, the substance and output of two decrees by the first Pahlavi state in the 1920s-40s will be compared: to modernize women and to modernize houses.