Hamideh Khanum Javanshirs Memoirs of Iran

Aziza Jafarzadeh - a legendary Azerbaijani writer and one of the pioneers of feminism, 2021

This paper is a presentation of the big Azerbaijani woman writer Aziza Jafarzade who is little known in West Europe. Bur it is necessary to introduce her great literatture and outstanding ideas to the broad readership. Her works, which are the result of her intense scientific research in the study of classical Azerbaijani literature, especially Azerbaijani oral literary heritage, have always attracted the interest of the scientific community. It is argued that through her books, Jafarzade proved that from ancient times in Azerbaijan there have been a high level of written and oral women's creativity, and they have a leader role in world literature. That is why Jafarzade is one of the successful pioneers of feminism.

Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies: Alam-e-Niswan

As the Muslim women’s question was articulated by men in the ‘reform’ movement (as in other communities), the participation of women was also by their (male) design; many times, women’s reform activities were seen as evidence of their own (male) progress. This paper examines the role of women initiated in the reform movement and the ‘role model’ they were expected to play, especially if educated and wedded to one active in ‘reform.’ The paper takes up the study of Wahid Jahan in reform, wife of Sheikh Abdullah, a pioneer in Muslim women’s education at Aligarh in the early twentieth century. Initiated in reform by her husband, and expected to follow his guidelines in all-important matters like being a ‘good wife’, her life would still be worthwhile to explore if the wife’s commitment and initiatives moved beyond the expectations or dictates of her husband. The paper thus, through biographical writings on Wahid Jahan, seeks to examine the larger question of reform normative and wife’s...

Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, 2018

Jahānārā Begum (1614-1681) played a central role in Mughal domestic politics throughout her life and is most known for her writings, exceptional patronage of building projects, and Ṣūfī affiliations. She was the eldest daughter of Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān and sister of Dārā Shikoh and Aurangzīb.

Journal of Middle East Women S Studies, 2010

WordPress, 2022

It might sound incredibkle, but it is a fact. Over thosand year back, from fighting in the army to managing the kingdom, women were key players in every aspect of the Mongol Empire. In 1178, A 17-YEAR-OLD MONGOL woman married a man she hardly knew. And while her husband traveled and fought and conquered, she ruled those who remained in Mongolia, managing every aspect of daily life in a massive nomadic camp. Commanders and shepherds alike reported to her, and she coordinated complex seasonal migrations of thousands of people and their livestock. At 28, she became the Grand Empress of the Mongol Empire; her name was Börte. Börte’s husband, Chinggis Khan (also known, based on the Arabic transliteration, as Genghis Khan), receives all the glory for founding the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known, but Börte and her immense contributions have been largely forgotten. While their husbands fought in distant, years-long military campaigns, Börte and other Mongol women kept the empire running. Some women also rode to war. Khutulun, Chinggis Khan’s great-great-granddaughter, would swoop down on the enemy “as deftly as a hawk,” wrote Marco Polo.

Middle Eastern Studies, 2015

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the royal harem and its functions during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848–96), on the basis of two independent Persian-language sources written by noble Iranian women at the turn of nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Naser al-Din's daughter, Taj al-Saltana (1884–1936), who in her famous memoirs vividly rendered her early years spent on her imperial father's court, and ‘Lady from Kerman’ (whose identity remains, for the moment, unclear), who authored a latterly published travelogue of pilgrimage to Mecca and the holy Shi'a places in contemporary Iraq held by her in the early 1890s. The second part of the latter account is entirely dedicated to the sojourn in Tehran, where, upon coming back from the sacred journey, the woman was a frequent guest at the royal harem. Both accounts are unique as they are the only known first-hand sources penned by the female insiders of the harem in nineteenth-century Iran. Furthermore, both authors, who actually met each other, describe the same figures and events – which provide an opportunity to compare their relations and augment our knowledge about Iran in the late Naseri period.

WordPress, 2021

Empress Nur Jahan was the most powerful woman in 17th Century India. She played an unprecedented role in running the vast Mughal empire. Historian Ruby Lal explains why the history of her leadership is important to understand today. She was named Mihr un-Nisa at birth and was later named Nur Jahan (light of the world) by her husband, the Mughal emperor, Jahangir. She was born only a few decades after Queen Elizabeth I, yet she ruled a territory far more diverse than that of her British counterpart. The Mughals ruled much of the Indian subcontinent for more than 300 years after they came to power early in the 16th century. It was one of India's biggest and most powerful dynasties. Many of its emperors and royal women, including Nur Jahan, were patrons of art, music and architecturethey built grand cities and majestic forts, mosques and tombs. And as the dynast's only woman ruler, Nur Jahan is omnipresent in the folklore of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Stories about her abound in the homes, and near monuments, in Agra in northern Indian and Lahore in northern Pakistan-two major cities in the Mughal era, especially during her reign. Older men and women, tour guides and history aficionados tell stories of how Nur and Jahangir met and fell in love; of how she saved a village tormented by a man-eating tiger-she shot it dead with a musket from her perch on top of an elephant.

In the eyes of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Imam Khamenei, women-especially Iranian Muslim women-have a special and important task, which has a tremendous, global impact. From his perspective, task at hand for Iranian women-which he has emphasized in his statements for the general Iranian nation-is an extension of the intellectual system of Imam Khomeini (R), the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and its source is the Holy Qur›an and the life of the Ahlulbayt (A). But the special task that the Leader of the Revolution has outlined for Iranian women is «building human [character]», a mission that Allah entrusted to His prophets. It is very clear that in order to carry out this special task, he believes in the great spiritual capacity of Iranian women. Another point is that he has statements for women and their individual, family and social dimensions, the responsibilities that society and family have towards women and the responsibilities that Iranian women have towards individuals, family, society and the world that enlighten women about her worth and her human responsibility. In this article, we will examine the status of Iranian women and the special mission defined for them. Keywords: Iranian woman, women's special task, building human character, the system of view of the Leader of the Revolution.

This paper will briefly discuss why and how the number of women writers grew rapidly after the 1979 revolution in Iran. It will also examine the impact of women writers’ work on the course of modern Persian literature.