Zan dar qiṣah'hā-yi 'āmīyānah: bāznemāyī-ye zan dar qesseh-hā-ye maktab-khāneh-ī-ye dowreh-ye Qājār Persian 2023

The book Women in Folk Tales: The Representation of Women in Qajar Maktabkhaneh Narratives, written by Fahimeh Hosseinzaveh, is an analytical study in the fields of folk literature and gender studies. It examines the image and position of women in maktabkhaneh (traditional school) tales of the Qajar period. Adopting a sociological and critical perspective, the author seeks to uncover the attitudes of traditional storytellers toward women and to demonstrate how these narratives both reflected social realities and contributed to shaping them.

Across its chapters, the book explores various dimensions of women’s presence in these tales—from economic roles such as wet nurses, concubines, and female entertainers, to women’s capacity for decision-making and problem-solving, often labeled as “cunning.” It also investigates women’s position within the family structure, their access to education, and the manifestation of gender discrimination within the narrative and linguistic frameworks of the stories. The analysis of printed illustrations and visual imagery in Qajar-era tale publications adds a further dimension to the study, revealing how images complemented written narratives in reinforcing or reshaping gender perceptions.

This work is a valuable resource for readers interested in folk literature, the social history of Iran, women’s studies, and cultural research. Through careful and well-documented analysis, it enables a critical re-reading of one of the most influential sources of collective cultural imagination and social mentality.