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In 1939, Reza Shah, after returning from an official visit to Turkey ordered the founding of the Iranian Aero Club. The main objective of the club was to familiarize Iranian young men and women with aviation and train them to fly. A piece of land was acquired in an area in south west of Mehrabad Airport (near Tehran) and later on some aircrafts were purchased specifically for flight training. In 1939, women's emancipation was just getting started. Flying was supposed to be a man's domain and was not yet unproblematic for women to enter. However, despite the prevailing situation, 22 women sailed against the wind and registered at the club. The first three pioneers who took the initiative to lead the path were, Effat Tejarat-Chi, Farrokhzad Dowlat-Shahi and Ina Avshid. According to Abbas Artvash, Effat Tejarat-Chi at 22 with a very high desire to fly was the first to join the club. (At 82, she passed away in August 1999). After these pioneers, some more enthusiastic women followed the suite. A few of them who were remembered and mentioned by Effat Tejarat-Chi in an interview in 1973 were as follows: Fakhroltaj Monfaredi, Ozra Rahimi, Drakhshandeh Malakooti and Safieh Partovi. Among the new generation of female pilots, a woman who should be recalled is Akram Monfared Arya.
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