Modern physical education in Iran before Varzandeh
Modern European physical exercises were known in Iran before Varzandeh’s arrival, but they were not the object of any particular state policy. At the Dar al-Fonun, the European officers on the teaching staff made their Iranian students exercise regularly, the school’s theatre having been transformed into a gymnasium for this purpose.20 After 1915 a German-educated military officer by the name of Geranmayeh introduced Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’s gymnastics into the military school (Madraseh-ye Nezam), while in the school of the Cossack brigade exercises were accompanied by music according to the “Zakolski” (Sokol?) method.21
Physical education was also an important part of the curriculum of the American School (later Alborz College). In a conscious effort to inculcate the value of cooperative effort, insufficiently fostered, so it was believed, by traditional Iranian education, the director of the school, Dr Samuel Jordan, concentrated on ball games:
Lack of cooperation is the lament of Persian statesmen today. The graduates of our school are noted for their ability to “play the game.” Twenty-five years ago athletics were unknown and exercise was taboo. ... In 1912 we organized a Boy Scout camp and started hiking and mountain climbing. . About the same time we started football, and now all over the country the game is being played. In the college, physical education is a regular part of the course. Each boy is required to take part in football, baseball, basketball and other group games where team play is essential to success. . The courses in physical education have been planned to instil into them the necessity of cooperation, and they go forth from the college strong to play the game of life.22
The American school for girls also taught physical education and instilled in its graduates the importance of physical fitness: in 1911 a woman who twenty years earlier had been one of the school’s first two Muslim graduates,23 Badr al-Duja Khanum, complained in her graduation address that because of veiling Iranian women had been deprived of sports, for which reason most of them were weak and unhealthy.24
The two types of physical education that were vying for supremacy in Europe were thus both represented in Iran: the competitive athletic games played in Britain and America, and the non-competitive gymnastics and callisthenics favoured on the continent.25 But given the scarcity of physical education teachers of any variety, the borders were not drawn strictly in Iran; in fact, Varzandeh was hired to teach physical education at the American School at a time when he was still not taken seriously by the country’s educational establishment.26 However, these efforts to introduce physical education to school curricula were not systematic and did not involve the Iranian state directly. Nor were the times propitious for large-scale state involvement: in the years following the outbreak of World War I governments in Tehran were weak and hardly exercised effective control over the country. The political and social backdrop to Varzandeh’s efforts is worth noting, as it explains why some in the ruling elite gradually came to find his message attractive.
