Sattareh Farman Farmaian (1921–2012)

Sattareh Farman Farmaian was born in Shiraz, Iran, to an aristocratic Persian family, and grew up in opulent surroundings. She also came into contact with the poor and underprivileged, and decided to devote her life to helping them.

Farmaian sought education in the USA, something almost unheard-of for Iranian women of her time and class. She earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Southern California in 1948.

She then returned to Iran in 1958 to found and become the first director of the Tehran School of Social Work. The school also set up community welfare clinics dedicated to literacy, child care, and women’s health.

For her efforts, she is known as the "mother of social work" in Iran. She served as a consultant and advisor to the United Nations, Arab states, Tehran University, and local government agencies in both the USA and Iran. Farmaian went into exile in the USA after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
She continued working with disadvantaged communities after returning to live in Los Angeles. She contributed articles on human development to journals and wrote several books, including Children's Needs (1960); Children and Teachers (1966); Prostitution Problems in the City of Tehran (1969);and On the Other Side of the China Wall (1977). In 1992, she published her autobiography, Daughter of Persia: A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem through the Islamic Revolution (with D. Munker).