Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi: A Tehran Girlhood

"[Shirin's grandmother witnessed] the banning of the hejab, as part of the modernization campaign launched by Reza Shah, who crowned himself king of Iran in 1926... and he set about emancipating [women] by banning the veil, the symbol of tradition's yoke." [p8... She claims to be a supporter of women's rights but she speaks positively of the Shah's banning the hejab and prohibiting women from the right to choose. She also claims to be a devout Muslim but she calls the mandatory religious dress a "yoke".]

"One day that year I crept up to the attic, to make a quiet appeal to God. Please, please keep my mother alive, I prayed, so I can stay in school. Suddenly , an indescribable feeling overtook me, starting in my stomach and spreading to my fingertips. In that stirring, I felt as though God was answering me. My sadness ended evaporated, and a strange euphoria shot through my heart. Since that moment, my faith in God has been unshakable." [p10, just in case you though she was a staunch secularist or pro atheism]