The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-01-19
PERSIAN WOMEN'S COURAGE.
BECOME RULERS OF THE HAREM
WIEN THEY ARE AROUSED.


ciuflon leo Dy Persian women OF the upper
classes would hardly be thought calculated
TO foster In them a spirit Of Independence
30 strong and courageous that on occasion
rulers and governors must bow before
them In matters political, economic and
social. Yet Mr.. Wiltrid Sparroy, writing
with knowledge Of things Persian, declares
that u Is often the case. If you encroaoh
on their sovereign rights as mothers or
sisters OF wives Three examples which
he gives will serve to illustrate the point
A Provincial Governor ms kes a corner
In wheat and barley, f~orbidding his subjects
to import grain from any market what
soever outside his jurisdiction. Their daily
bread goes up to famine price In no time.
and the women, seeing their children In
the danger Of starvation. rise up In arms
az once. They jump into their trousers,
they slip on their wells, they make a raid on
the Governors palace. They batter at
his gates: the gates are flung open and the
women rush in. They take the dirdn
khunt by storm; they shrek, they wall.
they threaten, they plead, they defy. they
swear by their mothers lives tina they
will have cheap bread to live on, and in
ninety-nine cases out Of a hundred they win
tit IN INV
womenfolk make common against
his oppression, must mend his ways.
Again, II sometimes happens that the
innate sense OF justice In women Expresses
itself In the opposition they make to any
inquisitorial interference on the part OF
licensed concessionaries with the habits
and practices OF their daily Me-an oppo-
sition which clashed on one occasion with
the success Of a British enterprise, az Ma
sirn'd DIN Shah, the ablest Persian sover-
eign OF the nineteenth century, learned
TO his cost from the disturbances arising
out OF the tobacco concession In 1891. In
the autumn Of the preceding year a com
plete monopoly Of the purchase, sale and
manufacture OF native-grown tobacco was
granted by the Shah, and an English com
pany, entitled the Imperial Tobacco Cor
poration of Persia. wa formed 70 work
II. The concession was TO hold good for
a period of fifty years. So wholesale a
bartering Of a staple product, regarded
In Persia as a necessary Of life, excited
the fercest opposition among the people.
who took further alarm at the company
exercising the right Of search In too reck-
less a fashion. The suggestion that the
privacy Of their homes was in danger Of
being violated by the mclean Firangi
suficed to kindle the vitality Of the race.
and the whole country, headed by the wo-
men and the priests, went on strike.
Mirza Hassan, the high priest of the sacred
city Of Kerbela. declared tobacco TO be
unlawful to the true follower Of the Prophet
and every man, woman and child wss for
hidden TO smoke or 20 sell II. The prlestly
prohibition was obeyed-the women. ever
to the fore In upholding the rtghts Of the
people 70 develop the resources Of the
country themselves, refused TO allow their
husbands TO smoke in the hArems. raids
were made on suspected tea-shops by
vigilance men. who smashed every water
pipe they could lay their hands on. Ministers
Of the Crown were coeroed by their wives
20 f~orswear the soothing weed; men and
women took their walks abroad wearing
the sullen and irrita BILE look habitua to
smokers who give up the habit too sud
Even the Shah himself mad no other
choio. than 70 smoke on the sly like a school
boy. 80 overriding VA the Whlm OF the
Of his harem. tn" result Of the
strike. probably the most remarkable
and certainly the most r"pnesentsti We OF
record. wa that the shah ia January. 1899,
weary 81 governing a nation of non-smoker-.
welded 10 the popular demonstration bv
caur.lillg the entire Uunu''r-lon. promising
p-runiary compensstipu for the rupture
u contracts "a promise which was faith
fully fulfilled Then fle gurgling ~ the
bubble waH heard once more In the
land and the national fa'r took on No
expression 81 Oriental serenity
The houor- Of this victufy belong 10 the