MYTHOLOGY EXPLORATION
Women in the Shahnameh: A Paragon of Strength
The surprising representation in Persia’s epic.
When we look at ancient epics, those that deal with a country’s or a people’s origins and mythologies, we normally find the stories suffer from the compartmentalization of female characters, casting them aside as one-dimensional personalities. They are reduced to the mother-of, or the daughter-of, rather than being represented by their name, individuality, and purpose.
The Shahnameh, the national Persian epic completed by Ferdowsi in the 11th century, covers traditionally hyper-masculine subject matters that you would find at the time of its writing: wars, heroism, dynastic conflicts, and royal successions. But when we look at the representation of women in the Shahnameh, there are a lot of surprising deliberations in how Ferdowsi portrays them.
I’d like to explore some of the major female characters of the Shahnameh and shed light on their importance and how they are represented. In their stories, Ferdowsi does not…
