Hello and thank you for downloading the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service.

We're taking you back to Iran in 1975 and the appointment of the first ever minister

of women's affairs, Manaz Afgami. She spoke to Fadhana Hyder in 2018.

It was a very cold snowy day. I was presented by the prime minister to the king at the airport

during the departure ceremonies for a head of state who was leaving. It was both an unusual setting

and an unusual appointment. Manaz was asked to become minister for women under Iran's king,

the Shah. Since the late 1960s, women had been making progress in Iran. They'd entered the diplomatic

call, the judiciary and the police force. Manaz who was born in Iran but had studied in the US

had returned to teach literature at the national university. Together with her students,

she founded the Association of University Women and in 1970 became the secretary general

of the women's organization of Iran. In the 70s, the country was very modern. We had a lot of

history of activism in Iran. When I was a secretary general of the women's organization,

groups of us traveled to countries such as China, the Soviet Union, Iraq, India to see how

women in other countries lived. And we had had German rear, the radical Australian and British

feminists in Iran to speak to women. And there was a huge amount of change and activism.

1975 was labeled the International Year of the Woman by the United Nations.

Manaz thinks that this might have provided parts of the inspiration for the creation

of the post. And as the role had never existed before, it gave her great freedom to do as she wanted.

You were the only woman in the Iranian government. What was that like?

It was a very interesting experience. There were 20 men and I was the only woman. I was very young.

But I learned that you cannot make suddenly feminists out of 20 men in order to change it.

You have to come to terms with negotiations. And I learned that they were just as worried as I was.

...