Touran Mirhadi

Fazlollah Mirhadi, who was Touran's father, left Iran in 1909 to study mechanical and structural engineering in Germany.

He was part of the first wave of Iranians to study abroad after the Iranian Constitutional Revolution.

Many of these young Iranians, Mirhadi among them, were interested not only in western science and technology but also progressive social and political ideas of the modern world.

Fazlollah met Touran's German mother, Greta Dietrich, during the difficult years of the First World War.

In spite of Greta's strict Catholic upbringing and the objections of her parents, the two got married and returned to Iran in 1919.

Touran was the fourth of five children born to Fazlollah and Greta.

The young German, who was a sculptor and had studied art in the University of Munich, focused her life on her children but stayed connected to the arts through her association with the Kamal Almolk Institute in Tehran.

Greta raised her children as Iranian but ensured that they stayed connected to Europe by teaching them German and French and tutoring them in European history, art and culture.

When the Allies occupied Iran during the Second World War, all Iranians with connections to Germany were interned.

Touran Mirhadi (16 June 1927 – 8 November 2016) was an Iranian teacher, author and researcher.

She was the founder of the Farhad School (Persian: مدرسه فرهاد) a progressive kindergarten and elementary school in Tehran which was a source of many pedagogical innovations.

She was also the co-founder of The Children's Book Council of Iran (Persian: شورای کتاب کودک) and The Encyclopedia for Young People (Persian: فرهنگنامه کودکان و نوجوانان).

Starting in 1932, Touran began her formal education in schools in Tehran while her mother continued to teach her languages.

Upon graduating from high school, she was admitted to Tehran University to study biology.

It was there that she first met Jabbar Baghtcheban, the leading authority on pedagogy in Iran.

Influenced by Baghtcheban and her own love of teaching, Mirhadi decided to abandon her studies at Tehran University and move to Europe to study child psychology and education.

Faslollah Mirhadi, who had played a prominent role in building the Iranian railroad, was imprisoned for 13 months during 1941 and 1942.

During that time, Greta managed all the affairs of the household and kept them afloat by renting the house that later became the site for the Farhad School.

Greta's character and determination, her perspective on life and children, and her broad knowledge that her children accumulated under her tutelage, were central to Touran's worldview and her love of children and education.

Her original plan was to study in Sweden but she ended up in Paris in the fall of 1946, a year after the end of the war.

She was so moved by the post war devastation in Europe that she joined student groups that participated in rebuilding efforts across the continent.

Her travels in Europe solidified her conviction that education, literature, arts and knowledge are keys to preventing human misery and war.

Mirhadi completed her degree in Educational Psychology at the Sorbonne University.

After graduation, she continued her studies in preschool education.

At the time, Paris was a center of innovation in child psychology and education.

Touran had the opportunity to study with the two towering figures in the domain, Jean Piaget and Henri Wallon.

She was also exposed to the works and philosophy of John Dewey and Maria Montessori.

Mirhadi returned to Iran in 1951.

She began teaching at a number of institutions in Tehran, including her former high school Noorbakhsh.

At the time, Iran and the Iranian society were undergoing fundamental changes.

Fresh from her experiences in Europe, Mirhadi was looking for a way to affect the course of the society.

In 1952, she met Jaffar Vakili—a young major in the Iranian army—and the two married a year later.

The marriage was short-lived; however, since Vakili was arrested the next year for his association with the Tudeh Party (the communist party of Iran) and its clandestine military wing.

In 1954 Vakili was executed, leaving Touran to raise their son Pirooz by herself.

After this tragedy, it was the support and encouragement of her mother that helped Touran get her life back on track and pursue her aspirations.

She married Mohsen Khomarloo and together the two started the Farhad School.

In 1955, Mirhadi started a kindergarten with only two classes.

She was supported in this effort by her parents who provided her with a house to be used as the location of the school and helped her get the necessary license for the kindergarten.

The school was named Farhad after Touran's brother who had died many years earlier in a traffic accident.

Her progressive and innovative approach to education was so quickly embraced by parents that two years later she was able to expand the school and offer first through sixth grade primary education.