The Miss Iran Pageant was formally started by Zan-e Rooz Magazine in 1965. The teen beauty pageant was scrapped after the revolution for obvious reasons. The former regime aimed at portraying Iran as a modern state and open to the world even though most Iranians were traditonal, conservative and resistant to change. The beauty pageants and the women's sports program were part of the emancipation process. It was a very small step but many teenage girls and women benefited from these programs. The government created safe havens in some areas of the biggest cities (i.e northern Tehran, affluent suburbs of Shiraz etc.) and encouraged modernity. Young women mimicked the clothing and hairstyles of Farah Pahlavi. She herself was made up and posed to look like Audrey Hepburn. Foreign press was permitted only to make reports about this segment of the society. Of course, this was neither a complete nor a true picture of Iranian society.

  

  

      

Image Credits: All images are from Iranian newspaper & magazine clippings which are now in the public domain. Some of the images were enhanced by adjusting the color balance. The Persian Blogs (Blogfa, Blogsky, Mihan Blog, etc.) are saturated with nostalgic images of Pahlavi Era women. This type of content may not be legal but is tolerated to a great extent.

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