Pahlavi period

Before the introduction of modern Western civilization, education in Iran was primarily under the control of the clergy and considered one of their main responsibilities. With the arrival of Western culture and civilization in Iran, particularly during the Pahlavi era, formal education, like many official governmental institutions, came to be managed by graduates of the new educational system. As a result, today some people view the clergy's involvement in official education as unconventional. The central question of this research is whether, with the formation of new schools and the informal status of old schools during the Pahlavi period, the clergy still played a role in formal education. The author's investigation indicates that a comprehensive and focused study on this topic has not been conducted. Although various academic works have touched upon the role of religious movements and clergy during the Pahlavi era, as well as memoirs related to active clerics in this area, these references are scattered and lack coherence. The present study, by descriptive and historical analysis methods, aims to explore this issue in historical documents. The findings indicated that after the reign of Reza Shah and with the opening of the political and cultural atmosphere, Shia scholars and clerics undertook two fundamental actions to play their role in education: The first was a gradual reform of the government’s new education system, conducted in four stages: Requesting the inclusion of religious subjects in schools, selecting suitable teachers for instruction, separating girls' and boys' schools, and the writing of textbooks by clerics with their presence to teach these books. The second action was the establishment and management of new private schools by clerics. This involvement of the clergy provoked a reaction from the Pahlavi regime, resulting in pressure on these schools and even the closure of some of them.

Mourning of Seyyed al-Shohda (AS) is one of the ritual-religious ceremonies of Shiites that were held in various historical periods. With the coming of the Pahlavi government, the restriction of Seyyed al-Shahada's mourning was part of a wider effort to secularize and modernize Iranian society, which led to conflict and challenges with the clergy and the people. Isfahan is the main area of ​​research due to the concentration of great Shia scholars and the formation of the seminary there. Descriptive-analytical research method based on documentary-library sources has been developed with a focus on Isfahan. The main question in the research is, what policies did the Pahlavi government (1304-1357 A.H.) undertake in holding religious ceremonies in Isfahan and what was the reaction of popular groups towards it? The results of the research show that the Pahlavi government applied policies in holding the mourning ceremony of Sayyid al-Shohada as a tool for the government to establish its authority and shape social behavior according to its political program and with measures such as monitoring the execution of the mourning ceremony, the need to control and Taking care of preachers and clerics, preventing the presence of Europeans in mourning ceremonies, publishing advertisements and announcements, and verifying the records of those who pray for prayer by the city police were able to implement some restrictions on the celebration of Seyyed al-Shahada, but still could not completely prevent the celebration of mourning.