the state. Rural and lower-class women were mostly involved in carpet weaving, embroidery, and the production of clothing, textile, butter, fruits, and tea. They also worked in silk and cotton manufacturing as well as other handicrafts. Women were also employed at mortuaries, public bathhouses, and in more affluent houses as maids, wet nurses, and nannies. In more populous cities women worked as entertainers, dancers, or prostitutes. Although many work opportunities were open for women their wages were lower. Women that worked in textiles during this time period earned an average of one-third of what men did. Even though women were given the ability to earn a wage, they still did not have many rights, it was still possible for rural girls to be sold by the head of their families. This time period, especially between 1905 and 1911, was the start of women's 'awakening' in Persia. It can be suggested that this awakening can be defined as a women's movement and feminism. Women began to become more involved with the public sphere, and Nasir al-Din Shah's harem participated in the 1891 tobacco revolt. However, it was not just wealthy women who were involved but also the common women. Washerwomen donated savings, along with wealthy women's jewelry contributions, to help sponsor a national bank. The storming of Majilis (parliament) in 1911 by women showed an unprecedented political awareness of women as well as a public action. Generally, there were precedents that restricted women's actions, where they were often portrayed as prisoners because of their gender inferiority. Often there is an orientalist view of Qajar women before the revolution. Badr al-Moluk Bamdad, wife of Ahmad Shah Qajar classic work, From Darkness to Light, published two years before the Islamic Revolution (1968-1969) refers to Persian history before the tobacco revolt as "a century of darkness", in which women are "poor creatures" and "powerless dolls" who are secluded from society while being concealed "under thick coverings and dependent like parasites". Bamdad also claimed that women were "prisoners, confined in the home or under the veil and the cloak"" Sima Bahar in an article titled, A Historical Background to the Women's Movement in Iran identified that the constitutional revolution period was the first occasion women participated with men in public action. She considers that during the Qajar period "women's activities were solely limited to the household; if they were active in production at all such