Introduction:
Women’s participation in the economic, religious, and social life of Iranian cities has not always been sufficiently visible in conventional historical narratives. Historical accounts of the late Qajar and early Pahlavi periods have frequently concentrated on political institutions, state reforms, male political actors, and the transformation of administrative structures. Such approaches can obscure forms of social participation that operated through family, property, religion, and charitable institutions. Waqf documents constitute one of the sources through which these less visible dimensions of social history can be examined. As legal instruments for permanently assigning property or its revenues to specified religious, familial, or charitable purposes, waqf deeds contain information not only about property ownership but also about social relationships, religious practices, family structures, and patterns of resource distribution.
The institution of waqf occupied an important position in Iranian social and religious life. Its functions extended beyond the financing of mosques and religious ceremonies and included support for families, descendants, students, the poor, travelers, medical institutions, and other beneficiaries. Women participated in this institution as donors, beneficiaries, trustees, and members of families whose economic interests were regulated through waqf. The study of female waqifs therefore provides an opportunity to investigate dimensions of women’s economic agency and social participation that may not be readily observable in political and administrative sources.
Sari provides a particularly useful setting for such an investigation. As an important urban center of Mazandaran, the city was connected to agricultural production in the surrounding region while also possessing an urban economy based on residential and commercial properties and religious and charitable institutions. During the First Pahlavi period, these local structures were affected by processes of administrative centralization and institutional transformation. Nevertheless, religious practices, family networks, and charitable arrangements continued to constitute important elements of urban social life. Examining women’s waqf deeds from this period can therefore illuminate the relationship between established forms of religious practice and the changing institutional environment of early twentieth-century Iran.
The present study asks: What forms and purposes characterized women’s waqfs in Sari during the First Pahlavi period, and what do these documents reveal about women’s economic and social agency? A related question concerns the ways in which women represented themselves and their social relationships in waqf deeds through titles, lineage, kinship, trusteeship, and the designation of beneficiaries. The study also considers whether the purposes assigned to endowed properties were confined primarily to religious practices or extended to familial and broader charitable functions.
The article approaches these questions through a documentary analysis of waqf deeds registered during 1304–1320 SH. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice provides the principal interpretive framework, particularly the concepts of habitus, capital, and field. This framework is not employed to assume that every act of endowment was a calculated strategy for social advancement. Rather, it helps explain how religiously sanctioned practices were embedded in existing relations of family, property, status, and recognition. From this perspective, waqf can be understood simultaneously as a religious practice, an economic arrangement, and a social practice through which individuals negotiated their position within established structures.
The significance of the study lies in its use of localized archival evidence to reconstruct aspects of women’s history in a specific Iranian city. Rather than treating women’s charitable activities as peripheral to political and social history, the study considers them as part of the broader history of property relations, religious institutions, family organization, and urban society. The waqf deeds examined here thus provide evidence for understanding the forms of agency available to women within the legal, religious, and social conditions of the First Pahlavi period.
Materials & Methods:
This study employs a qualitative historical methodology, with a focus on the interpretive analysis of archival documents pertaining to women’s religious endowments (waqf) in the city of Sari during the Pahlavi I period (1925–1941). The research is grounded in systematic fieldwork carried out at the archival repositories of the Office of Endowments in Sari and the General Directorate of Endowments and Charitable Affairs in Mazandaran province. These archives preserve registered, authenticated waqf deeds—legal documents drafted and approved within the official framework of the Iranian endowment system of the early twentieth century. Each deed is cataloged by file number (kelaaseh oghafi) and includes vital information about the donor (waqefa), the endowed properties, conditions of use, intended beneficiaries, and administrative arrangements for supervision and execution.
The analytical framework integrates traditional document analysis with content analysis, emphasizing both textual and contextual interpretation. Each document is examined not only for its legal and economic content but also for the symbolic and discursive dimensions embedded in the language of the deed. This dual-level approach allows the study to trace how women utilized the religious-legal institution of waqf to express agency, navigate structural constraints, and participate in the broader social and religious life of their community.
To deepen the sociological interpretation of these materials, the research employs Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice as its central theoretical framework. Key concepts such as habitus, capital (economic, cultural, social, and symbolic), field, and symbolic reproduction are used to interpret women’s endowment practices not merely as pious gestures, but as socially situated and strategically motivated acts. The “religious field,” in Bourdieu’s terms, is understood as a structured space of social relations governed by symbolic hierarchies, in which agents (in this case, women) compete for recognition and legitimacy. Waqf, as a legally sanctioned and religiously meritorious practice, becomes a medium through which women could convert tangible resources into symbolic capital—gaining respect, visibility, and spiritual authority in a male-dominated society.
Furthermore, attention is paid to the structure of the waqf documents themselves, including their legal formulae, terminologies of agency and possession, and use of honorifics and kinship identifiers. This linguistic analysis sheds light on the ways in which women crafted their social identities within the documents, both through their titles (e.g., Sayyeda, Khanom, Shahzadeh) and through the networks of trusteeship and familial relations they institutionalized through their endowments. These documents, as social texts, thus serve as invaluable records of female agency, economic activity, and moral vision in a historical period often characterized by political centralization and cultural transformation.
The methodology also includes a comparative dimension: the deeds are analyzed across time (from 1304 to 1320 Shamsi) and across property types (e.g., agricultural land, urban residences, baths, household items) to identify patterns of change and continuity. This longitudinal and cross-sectional approach reveals how women's waqf practices evolved in relation to broader processes of modernization, urbanization, and state intervention during the early Pahlavi period. In sum, the methodological design of this study foregrounds the intersection of historical documentation, legal literacy, and sociocultural agency in the analysis of women’s religious endowments.

Discussion & Results:
The analysis of women’s waqf documents from Sari during the Pahlavi I period reveals a complex interplay of economic agency, religious motivation, and symbolic positioning. Three major analytical patterns emerge from the content analysis: the diversity of endowed properties, the multidimensional motivations of the female donors, and the strategic use of waqf as a vehicle for social legitimacy and intergenerational continuity.
First, in terms of endowed properties, the data show that women were actively involved in both rural and urban economies. Several waqf deeds pertain to agricultural lands—particularly irrigated rice paddies (shālīzār)—which were among the most valuable and productive assets in the northern Iranian region. These deeds confirm that women were not only landowners by inheritance or dowry but also exercised managerial and distributive authority over their estates. Simultaneously, women also endowed urban properties such as residential homes, bathhouses (hammam), and household items, indicating their deep integration into the economic fabric of the city. The presence of shared or partial ownership (e.g., do-dāng mashāʿ) also reflects legal sophistication and the importance of cooperative property management within families.
Second, the motivations behind these endowments were diverse and multi-layered. While many deeds explicitly state religious intentions—such as support for mourning rituals (ʿazādārī), commemoration of the martyrs of Karbala, or donations to mosques and religious hospitals—others include familial or social concerns, such as the equitable provision for children and descendants (awlād), or support for the poor, orphans, and pilgrims. A notable example is the deed allocating income from an endowed property equally to male and female descendants, challenging patriarchal norms of inheritance. Some women directed revenues toward newly emerging institutions like the Red Lion and Sun medical center, illustrating their awareness of modern public health needs. This array of motivations suggests that women navigated a range of fields—religious, familial, philanthropic—when determining the scope and orientation of their waqf.
Third, the documents indicate a deliberate effort by women to assert their social identity and symbolic authority. Titles such as Sayyeda, Shahzadeh, and Khanom, along with descriptors referencing deceased fathers or spouses, reflect social rank, religious lineage, and familial prestige. The repetition of these titles and the explicit naming of trustees and beneficiaries reveal women’s strategic concern with legacy, recognition, and the preservation of family honor. In several deeds, women specify the terms of endowment administration, appointing relatives or trusted agents (motawalli) to oversee their implementation. These stipulations—often detailed and conditional—point to women’s legal awareness and desire to retain control over their charitable intentions beyond their lifetime.
Bourdieu’s theoretical vocabulary illuminates the deeper social logic of these actions. By converting economic capital (land, homes, income) into symbolic capital (piety, honor, prestige), women entered the religious field as respected agents, despite their exclusion from formal political or clerical power. The habitus of these women—shaped by religious devotion, family obligations, and local cultural norms—enabled them to act within accepted frameworks while subtly redefining their roles. Through waqf, they simultaneously reinforced religious traditions and adapted them to new social realities. The repetition of specific ritual uses—ʿazādārī, kheyrāt, ṣalawāt—also indicates a conscious reproduction of communal values, serving both spiritual and social cohesion.
In sum, the results reveal that women’s waqf practices during the Pahlavi I era were not marginal or merely devotional. They were embedded in a strategic logic of social investment, cultural reproduction, and gendered agency. These women operated at the intersection of religious piety and social capital accumulation, crafting a space of influence within a male-dominated order.

Conclusion
The study of women’s waqf practices in Sari during the Pahlavi I period offers significant insights into the gendered dynamics of economic agency, religious authority, and social participation in twentieth-century Iran. Contrary to dominant narratives that portray women as passive subjects in early modern Iranian history, the waqf deeds examined in this research reveal a spectrum of strategic, informed, and impactful actions by women of various social classes. These women—whether from aristocratic families, religious households, or urban middle-class backgrounds—used the institution of waqf to embed themselves within the moral and economic life of their communities.
By endowing property, income, and symbolic resources, these women achieved multiple goals: they reinforced familial and religious values, supported public goods (such as hospitals, mosques, and taziyeh rituals), and asserted their personal agency in the management of wealth and charitable priorities. The conditions they imposed in the waqf deeds reflect both foresight and autonomy, suggesting a high degree of legal and financial literacy. Whether through the naming of trustees, detailed ritual allocations, or inheritance stipulations, these women exerted control over their legacies in a patriarchal and often bureaucratic environment.
The application of Bourdieu’s theoretical tools—especially the concepts of symbolic capital, habitus, and field—helps recast these acts not as isolated pious gestures but as embedded social strategies. In a context where formal political participation for women was restricted and social mobility limited, waqf became a powerful mode of symbolic negotiation and self-assertion. These acts of endowment allowed women to attain a form of public presence, to inscribe their names in communal memory, and to ensure that their moral and familial values would endure.
Furthermore, the research underscores the value of localized, document-based social history. By focusing on the city of Sari—a regional hub often overlooked in mainstream historiography—and by using primary archival materials rather than official narratives, the study presents a bottom-up perspective on female agency in modern Iran. It demonstrates how religious charity and endowment functioned not only as acts of faith but also as mechanisms for negotiating identity, managing wealth, and influencing communal structures.
Ultimately, this study invites a reconsideration of the role of women in shaping religious, economic, and civic life in twentieth-century Iran. Far from being marginal, these women were deeply embedded in processes of urban development, cultural continuity, and social solidarity. Their waqf deeds offer a textured, multi-dimensional account of how women engaged with modernity, tradition, and power—through a deeply Islamic, yet remarkably adaptive institution.