Shams ol-Moluk Mosahab

Mosahab was born in Tehran in 1913, the third child of the politician Mohammed Ali Mosahab.[1] Her brother Gholamhossein later became a mathematician. She attended Namus primary school and then the Higher Teacher Training College.[1] She then became one of the first group of women to be admitted to the University of Tehran,[2] becomnig the first woman to earn a PhD in the subject in 1945.[1] She subsequently attended Laval University in Canada and the University of Florida and University of Indiana in the United States, studying for a second doctorate.[1]

After returning to Iran, she began lecturing at the University of Tehran,[1] subsequently becoming a headteacher at the Parvin, Shahdokht, and Nurbaksh girls high schools, as well as serving as director of the Higher Education and Teacher Training department in the Ministry of Education.[1][3] She later worked for the Ministry of Culture and became Deputy Minister of Education.[1]

Mosahab also campaigned for women's suffrage.[1] Women were granted the right to vote in 1963, and following the parliamentary elections that year, Mosahab was one of two women appointed to the Senate.[2] She remained in the Senate until 1980.[1]

She died in 1997.[3]