Dominic Brookshaw: Portraits of Women Writers from Qajar Iran

To what extent did women control and mould their image in Qajar Iran? What can portraits of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Iranian women writers tell us about how they wished to be seen by others? This talk will focus on portraits of women writers better known to us through their written works, whether poetry or prose produced in Iran in the period circa 1850-1930 to explore the dynamics around female image-making. Particular emphasis will be given to questions of female agency in relation to the commissioning, production, and dissemination of such bold depictions of women in the pre-Kashf-i hijab (mandatory veiling act) of the mid-1930s. It will be argued that a distinct, nascent tradition of female self-depiction can be discerned in images of women writers produced in Iran in this period, one that is in dialogue with images of Qajar men, and also aware of European sensibilities.