Shahrazad Woman

Once again the themes of these novels are the feminine empowerment, loyalty and devotion. These all are thought to be things that females do well, but when put against an all male society they are faced with obstacles. They overcome the temptation and stay on the right path or stay focused on their goals. Although Shahrazad was a little different story line that Devasmita she also faced obstacles. She was trying to teach the king a lesson and didn't listen to male authority. She thought herself and was self motivated, her goal was set and didnt stray away from it. She was devoted and loyal to her goal to teach the

In this portrait, the artist has portrayed herself, wearing a black color dress that covers her completely only leaving her face uncovered. Moreover, a poem in Persian language is stated on her face, and a rifle is segregating her face into two components. The artist’s eyes gaze intensely towards the viewers from the both sides. She opted to portray herself as a muslim woman to shed light on her religion and to explain the distinction amongst Islam and western culture. According to Syre, the poem inscribed upon her face narrates the belief of many Iranian Muslim women in Islam. It is their believe that as per Islam, all men and women are equal, and the Chador that covers the woman body from head to feets, leaving her face naked prevents woman from becoming a sexual

First, Shahrazad is represented as a heroic figure, who vows to save other women from the death plot constructed by Shahryar. The fearless and brave nature of Shahrazad is highly contrasted with what the character of women was thought or expected to be at the time. Second, she is portrayed as a faithful and loyal wife who makes various attempts through her narratives to alter her husband’s perspective and heal his distrust of women. It was because of her astuteness and courage that she was able to placate the king and save all the women of her city from

Throughout the poem Kabul by Saib-e-Tabriz, we see many personifications of Kabul as a beautiful woman. The poem emphasizes on the many attractive traits of Kabul by using words such as “dazzling”, “sparkling”, “enthralling” and “gaiety” which contrasts the hardships and pain of the women in Afghanistan. This oxymoronic comparison makes us wonder deeper into the meaning of beauty and what is ultimately the meaning of being a beautiful woman on the inside.

Shahrazad knows poetry and literature by heart. She uses her gifts of storytelling to heal King Shahrayar by relating each story to his situation. While most female heroines use their body as a source of empowerment, Shahrazad uses her knowledge of literature to not only save King Shahrayar, but also the women of her town. When a demon promises to kill a man for accidentally killing his son in exactly a year, the man honestly shows up for his death. The merchant “had eaten the dates, waiting for the demon, with a heavy heart and tearful eyes” (Haddawy 1189). Shahrazad shows King Shahrayar that some people are trustworthy in the face of injustice. This merchant keeps his promise to the demon that he will come back for his death, even though he does not deserve to die. The king strongly believes that all women are evil and no one can be trusted because his wife cheats on him, but Shahrazad shows him through her stories that there are some honest people. Three different men show up with the merchant curious to see what will happen to the man. One old man, out of compassion, asks the demon, “if I tell you what happened to me and that deer, and you find it strange and amazing than what happened to you and the merchant, will you grant me a third of your claim on him for his crime” (1190). This man, a stranger to the merchant, is offering through storytelling to save the man

The first instance of the female characters showing a greater amount of power than their statuses is through the prologue; in the prologue of the story, Shahzaman’s wife is referred to only as her role as a wife rather than her individual being. Even when witnessing his wife’s betrayal, Shahzaman still only refers to her as her role. “‘By God, I am king and sovereign in Samarkand, yet my wife has betrayed me and has inflicted this on me’” (1001 Nights 1088). Both of the wives have an irreplaceable role within the story as their act of infidelity acts as catalysts for the story to begin, yet such important roles do not even have names.

Satrapi shows how femininity and gender ideals was used as an encouragement to support the revolution objectives. The revolutionary leaders needed a motive to make people strongly believe in the revolution, religion and gender was used as the main motive and to strengthen the passion. For instance, in Persepolis, women were depicted as guardians of the nation since they are understood to be the careers of tradition through motherhood. The Islamic regime used the cultural norms and turned women into a symbolic cultural base. Over the course of Persepolis, we see other different examples used by Satrapi like her teachers who seemed brainwashed by the Islamic regime Ideas (96). Fae Chubin’s “When my virtue defends your borders” shows how the 1979 revolutionary leaders’ speeches emphasized that women chastity and devotional motherhood are pivotal to the protection of the nation, its independence and its future. He uses the post-revolution interviews, speeches and writings by revolutionary leaders in the context of a historical review of gender politics and gender discourses in Iran by looking specifically into the ways in which gender is narrated and how traditional notions of femininity in the Islamic gender discourse became reconstructed and contested through those narrations. As an example, one of the revolutionary leaders Olama, said “this shameful unveiling… this basin-shape cap, the cast-off of the foreigners, is a shame to the country of

The women of Saudi Arabia have been oppressed by the men of the country for generations due to the ignorance of the people, their Islamic faith, and the government. They have no rights and they must receive permission from their husbands or fathers to work, travel, and receive medical attention. The memoir Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson, is an excellent example of the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and the literary devices of characterization and setting help to bring the oppression to life.

I can honestly say, that this graphic memoir opened my eyes to the female perspective in Iran during the time of the Shah to the revolution and beyond. Before reading Persepolis, I had a single worldview of the Middle East. I thought that women would be treated the same way in most countries-as unequal to a man as it can get. I pictured women unable to have respectable jobs and never being able to show much more skin than their hands and face. When Satrapi says, “The basic culture is not that the woman is nothing—Iran is not Saudi Arabia—the women, they are educated, they are cultivated, they work. You have women that are judges, they are doctors, they are journalists, they work.

The rights given to the Persian and Chinese women were nonexistent. In Persia, women were viewed as objects to be admired. They served their husbands with anything they desired. If a woman had the courage to rebel against her husbands she was made an example of and replaced. Women had no choice but to obey and “give honor to their husbands, high and low alike” (Document

Because of their beauty ,women are underestimated , in this case Miss Rehana,. People used to think about beauty women that they are weak and incapacitated to do the same thing that men do. This sexist theory unfortunately is still used in our days to play down the figure of women in countries like Pakistan. We believe that S. Rushdie uses this way of think to break in the end our expectation about Miss Rehana , and highlight more the independence and freedom of women.

Utilizing nego-feminism, questioning subordination and preexisting understandings of culture, and the stark depictions of a graphic novel, Satrapi makes a compelling case in humanizing Iranian women like her. In this way, Satrapi reclaims the space of her identity and how it is represented and the ethics of doing so, and alters it in order to provide a more representative picture of her life in Iran. Satrapi tells her story with images of privileged characters whose politics, financial situation, and values well match those of liberal Westerners. Further, she demonstrates her autonomy, independent of the regime, in which she also is able to demonstrate her passion for spirituality and nationalism. She begins her story from a child’s perspective in order to alter preexisting perceptions about Iranian women overall proving her strong love for her family in a way that echoes American values.

In the story Thousand and One Nights the character Shahrazad caught my attention because of how brave, smart, and cunning she was. “I would like for you to marry me to King Shahrayar, so that I may either succeed in saving the people or perish and die like the rest.”(Puncher 1182-1183) She was willing to volunteer herself to save the lives of other women which was very brave because the King was known for taking virgins and having sex with them then killing them. She was willing to place herself in the hands of a man that was known for degrading men. Shahrayar was also intelligent because she used stories to save her life and others. She created a very strategic plan to tell her stories. She began with stories about adultery, so it would catch the attention of the King and leave him wanting to know more. Then, she used adventurous stories to keep herself alive long enough to civilize the King and save the other women. She starts the stories off as adventurous, then she started telling stories that had morals behind them. Shahrazad was already well educated before she started telling the stories. “Shahrazad had read the books of literature, philosophy, and medicine.” (Puncher 1182). They also described her as being intelligent, knowledgeable, wise, and refined which were all true descriptions of her.

The Arabian Nights allows the reader to view the world from an Islamic perspective. One can understand the values that shape and mold their society, such as faith and wisdom. It would not be an exaggeration to state that the Islamic society is based around these traits and are seen as crucial for survival. These traits are a major factor on how males and females are portrayed in The Arabian Nights. Women may either be portrayed as a possession of the male or the male under the influence of the female or the male is portrayed as a gullible fool.

The value of aiding those in need is emphasize throughout the book, but it is first shown in “The Story of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad, His Vizier’s daughter”. In this story, Shahrazad aids those in need by marrying King Shahrayar to prevent him from killing other women after his wife cheated on him. King Shahrazad grew a strong hatred towards women after his wife cheated on him. As result, he married a different woman overnight and the next morning he ordered his Vizier to put his wife to death. When Shahrazad, who is the oldest daughter of the king’s Vizier, came to learn of the king’s action of asking her father to marry her to the king, she stated, “I would like you to marry me to