Glimpse the life of ordinary and powerful women of Iran from 3000 B.C. to modern times. The lives of the queens, empresses and their entourages provide a fascinating look into the forgotten history of women in Iran.

Spanning a period of 5000 years, the book provides a comprehensive and easy-to-read look at women’s lives in ancient, medieval and modern Iran. Learn about the priestess with the golden eyeball at the Burnt city dating back to 3000 B.C. and the goddesses of ancient Iran such as Pinikir, Kiririša, Upurkuppak and Anahita. Discover how the Achaemenid women at the court and their entourage lived in 500 B.C. Become familiar with the powerful Parthian queens Musa and Anzaze and empresses Buran and Azarmidokht of the early medieval Sasanian era. Find out how women’s lives changed after Islam and the introduction of Islamic codes of behavior and laws in the 7th century. Follow the lives of women in harems and how they maintained their youth and beauty while competing with hundreds of concubines and slaves. Learn about the Turkic and Mongolian women and the difference they made. Discover the powerful foreign concubines of the Safavid harems and their involvement in harem intrigues and politics. Follow the role of women in Qajar politics of the 19th century, women and constitutional revolution, the Pahlavi era and the emancipation of women in 1936, modernization and the Islamic Republic and the changes that followed.

• 100 pictures from objects in the major museums in Iran, Europe, Russia and North America, In addition to reconstructions of imagery based on archaeological finds.
• A to Z listing of the most prominent Iranian women through the millennia.