Bahram Roshanzamir responded to Ferdowsi being charged of neglecting women. He said “Feminist intellectuals only seem to aim at Ferdowsi. Why do they expect that Shahnameh heroes should be women instead of Zal or Rostam or Sohrab, whereas their own ideal heroes in west have been men like Harry Potter for centuries?” He asserted that comparative studies reveal women types in Shahnameh are more active than those in Iliad or Odyssey.

IBNA: “If we do not make research on our own gems, we should expect outsiders to judge about us. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is our cultural gem and it has suffered from the fate occurring to our other gems. That is, foreigners started Shahnameh studies for us and we are unaware of the damages of such services”.

This was part of the speech of Bahram Roshanzamir, Shahnameh researcher made Sunday evening at Jamshid Hamasian cultural-artistic institute. He considered unfounded defamations as one of these damages and added, “The westerners who view east as the land of absolutism, call Shahnameh an absolutist work made in a third world country which is anti-feminine”.

He continued, “We are not aware of the distinction between Iranology of the foreigners and self-knowledge. The most outstanding difference between the two is lack of an intrinsic and well-rooted knowledge of Iran by foreigners. The foreigners only go to the sources and give a superficial literal meaning of everything. And unfortunately the world has accepted such people as Iranologists as pay for their opinions.”

He then remarked, “Among those interpreting Shahnameh, we can refer to Theodor Noldeke who writes, “In Shahnameh, women lack active roles and they appear only when lust or love is involved.”

According to Roshanzamir, Shahnameh is rather a report of ancient Iran and not a work of fiction. Could Ferdowsi have ignored the 5 thousand-year old history of patriarchy and given key roles to women to escape such feminist charges?

According to him, it is not clear whether Noldeke has compared Shahnameh with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, or with eminent works of pre-modern Europe - the Renaissance. Who can claim that Homer’s women are more seen than Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh?

“Even in the works of well-known figures like William Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, and Charles Dickens made centuries after Ferdowsi and after liberalist movements in Europe, women are not found outside spaces of lust and love.”

He mentioned that feminists target classic works in the first step, and said “Even in 20th and 21st centuries men are still siding the horses of power”.

He also referred to best-seller Harry Potter and asked, “Why is the hero of this work not a girl? Why we accept this one and then expect that Ferdowsi - composing verses 1000 years ago - should have chosen women instead of Rostam, Esfandyar, Sphrab and Zal?”

According to him, “Feminist intellectuals only seem to aim at Ferdowsi”, whereas in Shahnameh there are reports of heroic fights of Gord Afarid with Sohrab, or combat of Gordieh - Bahram Chubin’s sister - with Chinese Khaghan.

He then stated that women in Shahnameh, even in love stories, are more active, respected and stronger than European ones, so much so that they even dare woo men and act as suitors, hence putting men in passive states.

“Do Gord Afarid or Gordieh stand for lust in Shahnameh? Yet, women are not mere fighters in Shahnameh, Faranak - Fereydun’s mother - prepares her son for liberating Iranians and other little women also have big roles in political events of Iran. At Sassanid period, women even come to throne.”

He concluded that for a just evaluation of the 60 thousand lines Shahnameh, one should not suffice to here and there lines and expand it to the whole text. Those who act thus, should first make sure if the lines really belong to Shahnameh and this is not possible except through stylistics and scriptology.

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