Week 5 Essay: Women in Persian Fiary Tales

One of the Essay topics to choose from was the role of women in the stories. In some of the past tales, women have important roles and even are the main characters, such as the Arabian Nights unit. But, this unit did not have strong female characters, or paint women in the most flattering light. In the Persian Tales unit, there were women who turned into wolves and killed their innocent husbands, such as in the tale The Wolf-Bride. And there were wives who manipulated their husbands and other family members into doing terrible things. 

            One of the most interesting cases I read was in the story The Wolf-Aunt. In the background information provided, it mentioned that in Persian culture, the sister of the husband is viewed as somewhat evil. The children are taught not to like their aunt on their father’s side. The author’s note states there are two types of aunts, “the mother's sister (khala) whom he is taught to love, and the father's sister (amma) who spoils him and who is kind to him, but whom his mother tries to teach him to hate and fear.” The tale is told to children for the specific purpose of teaching them to be fearful and distrust their amma (father’s sister). It was so strange to me to think that children are taught to dislike one of their family members, because I have always been taught that your love for your family should be unconditional. They are family.

            One of the other stories that really stuck out to me where the women’s role stuck out to me was in The Boy WhoBecame a Bulbul. The woman in this story said "You two ought to lay a wager to-day and agree that whichever of you collects the more firewood should cut off the other one's head." This seems ludicrous for a mother to say that her husband and son should make a somewhat friendly wager in which one will have to kill the other. I could not believe a mother would do that! But, there is an important detail that I believe makes a significant point. She is a stepmother. In many fairy tales I am familiar with, such as Cinderella, the stepmother is not described in a favorable way; although usually not to this extent. I thought it was interesting to draw the similarities of how stepmothers are often portrayed negatively in fairy tales. 

Cinderella was forced to live in unbearable conditions by her stepmother, image source: wikimedia