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Diversity at Alborz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

H. E. Chehabi
H. E. Chehabi*
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Abstract

This essay discusses the various dimensions of diversity at Alborz, both when it was run by the American missionaries and when it was under Iranian management. In the first part, the ascriptive traits of human beings are the object of the analysis: gender, race, language, religion and class. In both periods Alborz was characterized by its openness to Iranians of different religious backgrounds, both teachers and students. The second part of the essay discusses the variety of the educational experience enjoyed by students, and concludes that it gradually diminished, as education came increasingly to be defined as instruction and extracurricular activities were reduced after the mid-1960s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 5: Alborz College , September 2011 , pp. 715 - 729
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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References

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10 Two examples: Mojtahedi is invited to attend the opening of the new road between Rasht and Lahijan. At the end of the ceremony, as he says goodbye to the minister of transportation, he tells him: “it's very nice to have a road from Rasht to Lahijan. Now perhaps you could build one from Lahijan to Rasht.” And: Mojtahedi goes to the bazaar to buy his daughter's trousseau. He finds some nice glasses, but something about them bothers him. So he asks the sales clerk: “why are they open at the bottom?”

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12 Which might have become the “American University of Tehran” had it not been taken over by the Iranian state.

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18 Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 348–54. Since most Baha'is and quite a few Jews do not have obviously non-Muslim names, these numbers probably underreport the total number of non-Muslims.

19 A student who helps teachers to maintain order and thus enjoys a degree of authority over other students.

20 Zahed Sheikholeslami, telephone conversation, 1 October 2009.

21 Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 52–53.

22 Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 65–66.

23 For a brief discussion see H. E. Chehabi, “Religious Apartheid in Iran,” Viewpoints, Special Edition: The Iranian Revolution at 30 (2009): 119–21.

24 These were Bozorg ‘Alavian (?), Abdolhoseyn Taslimi (physics), Alimorad Davudi (philosophy?), and Ruhi Rowshani (history and geography).

25 S. M. Jordan “‘The Power Plant in Persia,’” Women and Missions (December 1929): 329.

26 Jordan, “The Only Christian College in Iran,” 394.

27 Jordan, “The Only Christian College in Iran,” 395.

28 The corollary of this is that Alborz graduates were over-represented in the country's power elite under the Shah. Zonis, Marvin, The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton, NJ, 1971), 168–69.Google Scholar

29 I heard the story from my mother, who had heard it from Mrs. Mojtahedi, with whom she had a weekly coffeeklatsch.

30 Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 62. Sons of teachers did not pay tuition either.

31 Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 30, 57, 65.

32 Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 57, 61–62.

34 Boyce, “Alborz College of Teheran,” 189.

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35 Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 24 and 26.

36 See table in Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 203.

37 See Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 6.

38 Ahmad Ashraf, “Ābādi,” Encyclopaedia Iranica.

39 In a talk given on the occasion of the first anniversary of Mojtahedi's death, as reprinted in Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 254.

40 Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 87.

41 Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 62.

45 Naser, Ravesh-e Doktor Jordan, 17 and 49.

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44 By the mid-1930s the school boasted of three football fields, three basketball, four volley ball, and eight tennis courts, one baseball diamond, and a running track. Jordan, “The Only Christian College in Iran,” 394.

46 Mo'tamen, [Zeynolabedin], “Alborz dar gozashteh va hal,” originally printed in Adamiyat, Manuchehr, ed., Sadehnameh-ye Dabirestan-e Alborz (Tehran, 1975), 260–61,Google Scholar reprinted in Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 61–62.

47 [Homa Katouzian], Doktor Mohammad Ali Homayun Katuziyan, “Adam va mo‘allem dar Zeynolabedin Mo'tamen,” in his Hasht maqaleh dar tarikh va adab-e mo‘aser (Tehran, 2005), 93.Google Scholar

48 See the bibliography of Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 873–74.

49 Adamiyat, Sadehnameh, 103.

50 See Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 70–74, for Mojtahedi's account of how he resisted an influential father's entreaties to change his son's grade.

51 Katuziyan [Katouzian], “Doktor Mojtahedi va masa'el-e khedmatgozari dar jame‘eh-ye kolangi,” in his Hasht maqaleh, 112.

52 Cf. Mo'tamen's reminiscences quoted earlier. For a similar assessment see Naser, Ravesh-e Doktor Jordan, 6.

53 See table in Musavi Maku'i, Dabirestan-e Alborz, 203.

54 He describes his motivations and solutions to the problem in Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 55–56.

55 Hallinan, Maureen T., “Tracking: From Theory to Practice,” Sociology of Education, lxvii (1994): 79–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Boys who had siblings attending Alborz were exempted from this procedure.

57 More than one Alborzi has confessed to these feelings to me. Perhaps I should add that my criticism of this aspect of Alborz is not caused by any sense of “sour grapes”: I was the only pupil of my cohort in 3/7 who went on to 4/1, 5/1 and 6/1. I am therefore speaking not out of experience but out of empathy.

58 Lajvardi, Khaterat-e Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi, 56. By the 1970s these visits had stopped, however.