Shahrazad an Iconic Feminist Character

One can see the saying it is a man’s world being proven throughout history. “The

Thousand and One Nights” has greatly managed to show the nature of the societies of that time

where women were subject to extreme domination by men and society as a whole. Considering

that this tale was written in the Middle Ages Islamic era, it is an extremely important feminist

literature of its time. “The Thousand and One Nights” presents one of the first in the Middle Age

era where a woman is presented as educated, intelligent, and strong in a literary work. This was

not the norm because women are oppressed and belittled in Islamic culture. Not only was this

text a problem in those days, but even now it is in the Islamic society. “Despite its shaping

influence on modern literature, traditional Arabic Literary Scholars have never recognized it as a

work of serious literature, and it is still occasionally banned as immoral by Arab governments”

(Thousand and One Nights1769). During the time when “The Thousand and One Nights” was

written, women had very little significance in society. Women were the property of men and had

very little influence over men. Or did they? The women in these stories are often treated as if

they are not human beings. Women were sex slaves to kings that can be killed with little

consequences. In some of the stories, the women are also depicted as being evil or wicked,

especially in relation to men. There are also examples of clever women who while not good per

se but are capable of using their intellect and proving themselves to be more than just sex

objects. In “The Thousand and One Nights”, the main character Shahrazad used sexuality and

intellect as a weapon to prove that not all women are evil.

The story is narrated by Shahrazad, a strong willed heroine. She uses her intelligence and

sexuality to persuade the King that has went scorn because his first wife cheated on him with a

slave and a black slave to make it worse. When King Shahrayar in the Prologue saw his wife

cheating on him he concluded that one could not trust women and decided to kill her. After he
killed his first wife, King Shahrayar marries a different woman every day and every night, he

kills her. The promise “to marry for one night only and kill the woman the next morning” is

supposed to save him “from the wickedness and cunning of women” (Thousand and One Nights

1778). Shahrazad is determined to stop this tragedy and thought of a plan to stop the king. She

decided to marry the king herself with the intent to prove to him that all women are not evil and

change his perspective to stop his horrendous and vicious act of murdering innocent women.

Shahrazad had the perfect plan to entertain him with stories every night so that he would never

get around to killing her so she can buy time to make him realize that all women are not evil

through her tales. She stops at dawn with a cliffhanger where she reaches the point of interesting

suspense, and the king, out of curiosity, spares her for the next night to complete her narrative.

Each night she puts on a role and manipulates the situation with her great narrative. She is

obviously not finishing the stories on purpose and making the King want to hear more. The King

does not catch on and continues to be manipulated by this smart and beautiful woman. With the

help of her sister, Shahrazad tells stories every night to save not only her life but also the women

from her village that would otherwise die. She was taking a big risk by volunteering to give

herself to the king, but she knew that she had the tools to gain authority over men which are

sexuality and intelligence combined. Obviously just sexuality was not going to work; all the

women before her were not able to change his perspective. After learning about her education,

which has come from self teaching and a personal love of learning, it is exposed that she is

strong willed and unwilling to give in to male pressure. That is seen when she refuses to listen to

her father about not marrying Shahrayar. Shahrazad was motivated to stop the killing in her

village one way or another, even if it meant that she might not live the next day. She was

confident that she had a good chance of getting the work done because of her brains and beauty.
Shahrazad uses her knowledge of many stories as well to manipulate the situation to her desire

instead of just her sexuality.

Shahrazad goes against all stereotypes and norms of what a woman is supposed to be.

The females in the Prologue of “The Thousand and One Nights” are portrayed as weak, not

intelligent and below the status of men. This value is also presented in the Koran. “Men have

authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they

spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient” (Koran 1153). The King

chooses to brutality murder his wife to make up for his suffering caused by her betrayal. Since

men are superior to begin with, females are seen as inferior to men and do not have the same

rights. Evidently the females in the Prologue are the cause of all evil and therefore all the women

are evil and their intentions are only evil. Therefore man has to make use of his power and set the

woman straight; in this case by killing all the women in the village. Men were driven mad by

their inability to control those disobedient females. Men from “The Thousand and One Nights”

had multiple women and would lock them up so they could not escape and for status symbols. It

is not only for sexual purposes, it is about power and fear because the men are afraid they would

lose control if the woman would leave. Obviously there are double standards that men can do

whatever they want even though they are in the wrong, which are accepted by society but also

justified by their religious belief. Even in the Prologue men are not punished for their

wrongdoings. It is obvious that it was a man’s world and they could do whatever they want.

However if a woman did anything that is slightly wrong she is expected to be punished and pay

for her mistakes. This again proves that there is double standard.

Shahrazad offers a balanced picture of human wrong in “Thousand and One Nights” and

attempts to expose the wrongs of both sexes equally. Shahrazad occupies not only the position of

storyteller, but also of a teacher. While never appearing to taking the role of a teacher, since she
has to maintain the appearance of entertaining instead of instructing. She discretely teaches many

valuable lessons to the King which clearly thought he was being entertained and not being

thought. The messages behind her stories are being taken by the King without him knowingly

doing so. Shahrazad is doing a good job of proving that both sexes commit wrong doing and that

men also have evil intentions. The tales reflect the conflict between men and women in the past.

She is saying that women are adulterous, jealous, and conniving; and that men are angry and

violent. Given her previous behavior, one might expect her tales to have a more open and strong

feminist motivation. That they do but her stories also have women who are just as spiteful and

cunning as the king’s wives, but they also have women of great integrity and kindness. She does

that to gain common ground with the King. If she only told stories that showed woman as being

perfect human beings, King Shahrayar would not be willing to listen or take her stories in. This

shows that she uses her intellect to manipulate the situation and is still to get her point across.

Shahrazad, through her lessons in the form of stories, depicts women as not simply evil, but as

capable of intelligence and much more beyond sex and disloyalty. In her stories, even if the

woman is in the wrong, there is still some hidden lesson being taught. The lesson is that there

are some women deserving of punishment while there are also others who should have the right

to fair treatment. Susan Enderwitz agrees with this point, “From a feminist point of view,

Shahrazad's inclination to include all kinds of stories should not be discarded at all as the

indifferent attitude of the compilers; on the contrary, it should be appreciated as the integrative

ability of a woman.” Shahrazad not only stalls for time in order to spares her life but she is also

attempting to bring Shahrayar back into the mindset that all women are not evil and do not

deserve to be punished for one women’s fault. One of the strangest cases of female

representation occurs before Shahrazad is about a demon and his virgin wife he kidnapped who

forces the two kings, which ran away due to their hatred of women, to have sex with her near her
lover. That situation made the Kings even more turned off from women and proved their point

that women cannot be trusted. That shows a woman that is manipulative and a cheater even

though she was the one kidnapped without her will. Even though the demon was in the wrong,

the woman is the one that is seen as being wrong. While Shahrazad tries throughout her nights

with the king to make him see some of the wrongdoing of his ways, she is also trying to change

society’s wrong point of views.

“The Thousand and One Nights” held a very important role that teaches the power of

women. The story illustrated that even when women didn't hold positions of power, they were

still capable of saving a kingdom. Shahrazad changes all stereotypes and norms of what a woman

is supposed to be. Through her, we gain a very strong sense of admiration for women. We see a

woman who exists not to be a man’s object but one that corrects the flaws of men and in doing so

she essentially saves the King and the women in her village. “Shahrazad was a courageous

woman who was able to postpone her execution and was able to divert the king from his

obsession with women's infidelity” (Gauch). Shahrazad took a risk and she knew that it was

going to work because she knew the power that the stories had. Women had a secret upper hand

because of the power of seduction, beauty and intellect they had. Shahrazad is able to express her

feminist ideals through her tales. “The Thousand and One Nights” cannot be denied of its

feminism point of views because of the strong female character of Shahrazad especially during

that time. When we consider how the story of “The Thousand and One Nights” ends with a

strong female character bringing sympathy and caring back to a distraught and cruel king, we can

see that this work shows a transformation of ideas that women do have authority over men and

are intelligent. Shahrazad is quite the fearless hero throughout the course of story and not only

through her refusal to submit to male authority but also because she used her intellect to

accomplish her mission. At the end the king grew to love her and not have her killed. The story
ends with a female winning power through intelligence. Shahrazad represents a female that is a

strong and an intelligent idol not only to Muslims but all women. Barbara Crossette in her article

about the effect that Shahrazad has on Muslim women says, “Scheherazade herself is getting a

powerful new image as a feminist icon, a provocative role model and an inspiration for Muslim

women who are seeking to take a stronger role in Islamic society without abandoning their

religion or their culture.”