Shahla Lahiji was a giant among human rights activists and booklovers in Iran. Following her death at the age of 81, the pioneering writer and publisher is being remembered as an inspirational figure who was unafraid of pursuing her vision of a fairer world -- even if it meant imprisonment.
Having written for press and radio since her teens, Lahiji encountered tremendous obstacles to her career following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Her answer was to found Roshangaran, or the Enlighteners, one of the first women-led publishing houses in the Islamic republic, in 1983.
Lahiji noted a decade later that she quickly recognized the challenges of entering a male-dominated industry in a deeply conservative and patriarchal society.
"I realized that I had stepped into an environment that was alien to the presence of women," Lahiji wrote.
She was constantly reminded that she was not welcomed in her chosen profession, and was looked upon with pity.
"Some, seeing the heavy printing plates I was carrying, rushed to me saying: 'Sister or mother, this is no business for you," she recalled. "Some were sure that if I turned to this work, it was out of necessity: 'Couldn't you have done something else? Like a women's clothing boutique or a baking class?'"
Her support for human rights would eventually land Lahiji in real trouble with the hard-line authorities.
In 2000, along with 18 other intellectuals, she was arrested after participating in a conference in Berlin in which risks to writers in Iran, as well as possible social and political reforms, were discussed. Lahiji was sentenced to four years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on charges of undermining national security and spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic. Her sentence was eventually reduced to six months.
Mehrangiz Kar, herself a pioneering female attorney in Iran who was also arrested and sentenced to prison for attending the Berlin conference, spoke to RFE/RL's Radio Farda after Lahiji's death in Tehran following a long illness on January 8.
'Passionate About Her Work'
Kar, who is a renowned scholar on women's rights and currently teaches outside the country, described Lahiji as being passionate about using her publishing house as a platform for change.
"I first met Mrs. Lahiji during the revolution. She was always keen on participating in activities to raise awareness about women's issues. To achieve this, she decided to start a publishing house, which she successfully established," said Kar, who added that Lahiji published more than 15 of her books.
"Lahiji continued publishing works about women, written by women, and translations by women. She was passionate about her work and worked closely with the women's movement," Kar said, noting that Lahiji "significantly influenced" the women's rights movement in Iran. "However, when women's issues became highly prominent and the government grew sensitive, Lahiji faced pressure, and her office was even set on fire. Despite this, she didn't leave the country and continued her profession."
Among Lahiji's many unique traits, Kar recalled, was her ability to negotiate with government censors who vetted the works published by Roshangaran.
"If they had 10 objections, she would negotiate and reason with them to bring it down to five," Kar said. "She often succeeded in persuading them with her viewpoint, making her a distinguished figure in this regard."
Shahla Lahiji (left) with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi in 2007.
Lahiji, who was born in Tehran in 1942 under the monarchy, described herself as having been raised in an open-minded household in which the women were given greater privileges than the men.
Her mother was among the first women to enter public service in Iran's monarchy, and her father was educated in Europe. After the family moved to the southwestern city of Shiraz, Lahiji began a career as a journalist with Shiraz Radio at the age of 15. She quickly went on to become the youngest member of Iran's Women Writers Association, and studied sociology in London.
Growing up, she believed that everyone in the world had a similar experience and opportunities. Following the Islamic Revolution, when she was in her late 30s, she had become fully aware of the need to educate others about women's rightful place in society.
'More Humane Vision'
Lahiji did not expect immediate change, she once said, but wanted to prepare women to defend their rights for the long-term. More generally, she sought through Roshangaran "to provide a broader, clearer, and more humane vision of social, economic, philosophical, psychological, and historical issues" for society as a whole.
Opening this avenue through books often meant careful translations of foreign works. For example, Lahiji spoke about the difficulties of adapting works by the Czech writer Milan Kundera, making slight changes to the text and removing parts she knew would come into conflict with the official censors.
Lahiji also suggested that some Iranian writers created their own challenges, saying that members of the younger generation would sometimes mischievously use vulgar terms in their submissions that she would edit out because she feared it would harm their cause.
She lamented in 2005, a few years after her arrest, that many of the books that had been published even during the Islamic Revolution had been banned, and that publishers that were not in line with the authorities were being pushed out.
But Lahiji carried on with her work, sometimes using silence -- such as her refusal to attend the Tehran book fair -- to send a message to the authorities that censorship was not an acceptable policy.
Lahiji's work was widely recognized abroad. In 2001, she received PEN American Center's Freedom To Write Award, which honors writers who fought in the face of adversity for the right to freedom of expression. She also won the International Publishers Association's Freedom Prize in 2006 in recognition of her promotion of the right to publish freely in Iran and around the world, among her numerous international awards.
Lahiji was also a diligent author, penning such works as A Study Of The Historical Identity Of Iranian Women and Women In Search Of Liberation.
She also founded the Women's Research Center and served as a member of the Violence Against Women Committee in Iran.
Following her death, condolences poured in -- including from state-run media outlets, civil society, and social media.
In a testament to the impact Lahiji had on society, more than 300 prominent activists and cultural figures paid their respects by signing a letter honoring her achievements. Remembrances were printed by Iran's official IRNA news agency and other outlets, and by the Publishers and Booksellers Union of Tehran.
Outside the country, Lahiji's contributions were marked by Iranian authors such as Arash Azizi, who wrote: "Rest in power, Shahla Lahiji. When we were teenagers in Iran of 2000s, that feminist publication house and bookstore you ran in Tehran was a center of our life.”
Lahiji was buried at Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on January 11. As a final ode, she was laid to rest to the slogan of "Women, Life, Freedom" -- the rallying cry of the nationwide antiestablishment protests that erupted in late 2022 and put women’s rights at the forefront.