Zan dar Shāhnāmah

Although the epic is the domain of men, women in Persian literature, with the exception of "Vis and Ramin," do not have the active roles that the women of the Shahnameh do. Interestingly, this active role is more prominent in the epic part of the book than in the historical part, which should be attributed to the influence of Parthian literature on the "Khodaynameh" and from there on the Shahnameh.

Women in the Shahnameh play active roles at all stages of life; whether in their maidenhood (examples include Rudabeh, Tahmineh, Sudabeh, Manijeh, Katayoun, and Golnar), as wives (examples include Sindokht, Sudabeh, Golshahr, Farigis, and Shirin), as mothers (examples include Franak, Sindokht, Jarireh, and the mothers of Kou and Talhkhand), as warrior women (examples include Gordafarid and Gordiyeh), as political women (examples include Homay, Qeydafeh, the mothers of Kou and Talhkhand, Gordiyeh, Shirin, Boran Dokht, and Azarmidokht), and also in roles such as nurses, companions, and vendors.

Although the description of women in the Shahnameh often focuses on their physique and beauty, wisdom and knowledge, chastity and piety, it is their active role and function that distinguishes them from other women in Persian literature, who are more often "prey" and "booty" than partners and life companions. Even in the Shahnameh, we witness a noticeable change in this regard.

Each woman's character in the Shahnameh is unique and singular; just as the role of women in all the stories of the Shahnameh is not the same and has different impacts. Their roles in each period, whether mythical, heroic, or historical, have various frequencies, and examining their characters and roles in the stories of the Shahnameh helps us to better understand them and correctly analyze their actions and reactions in the context of the story.

This book is the doctoral dissertation of Professor Jalal Khaleghi Motlagh, completed in 1970 at the University of Cologne and published in Freiburg, Germany, in 1971. In 2012, Brigitte Neuenschwander published this book in English in California, and it was subsequently translated from English to Persian twice in 2016 and 2019; however, the present translation is from the German version of the book.

In the introduction section of the book, the author has tried to first examine the role of women in the Iranian mythological system and simultaneously reflect it in the Shahnameh. This introduction ends with the myth of the creation of the first couple and then connects to the story of the first women in the Shahnameh.

In the first section of the book, the author provides a brief account of the most famous women of the Shahnameh and compares it with other sources before and after Islam, and at the end of each account, outlines the unique characteristics of that woman. Since detailing the story of all the women of the Shahnameh in this manner would require a very voluminous book, all mythical women are included, but only the most famous historical women are selected and then divided into two groups: noble and non-noble.

In the second section of the book, the status and position of women in the Shahnameh are examined with reference to sources before and after Islam. The author in this section reviews the role, importance, and fate of the women of the Shahnameh in different stages of life, childhood, marriage, and motherhood, as well as within the family and society. Since the Shahnameh is not a book about family rights, the author has used other sources to fill the existing gap; thus, the Shahnameh in this part of the research is considered more of an auxiliary source, which nevertheless shows the boundary of the reflection of ancient Iranian cultural topics in the Shahnameh.