Zari Taheri
A Lecture by Dr. Zahra Taheri, Scholar
Topic: ”The Image of Women in the Interpretation of the Myth of Creation”
The belief in Eve’s responsibility for eating the forbidden fruit and seducing Adam or commanding him to disobey God, can ultimately be traced to the interpretations for the myth of Creation in Abrahamic religions in which Eve is responsible for the fall and expulsion from Paradise. She takes the lead in breaking God’s commandment and as the punishment for her transgression, therefore, is cursed and God has greatly multiplied her sorrow and her conception. This inequality has later been extended to other areas and found its way to the Koranic exegesis, and from there to moral codes in ethical texts. In order to search for the roots of these ethical rules, this talk will examine Tafsir-e Tabari which can be considered as one of the main source of the ethical writings in later periods.
Dr. Taheri studied classical and contemporary Persian literature in Iran at Pahlavi (Shiraz) University, and received her Master’s degree in Persian studies from the Pajuheshkade-ye Farhang-e Iran, and her PH.D from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. During the last two decades she has taught Persian literature, language, Iranian history and culture, and Gender and culture courses in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley (USA), the Department of Persian Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), and the Middle East and Central Asian Studies Department in the Australasian National University (Australia). Her first book, Hozur-e peyda va penhan-e zan dar mutun-e sufiyyeh was published by the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies/Japan in 2007. The third editions of this book was published in 2018. Her second book “The Ancient Silence of Mirrors” (Sokut-e Kohan-e ‘Ayene-haa) was translated into Japanese and published in Tokyo in 2012, and the original Persian was published Persian by Nashr-e Sales in Iran in 2016. She is currently working on her upcoming book on “The Image of Women in Persian Ethical Texts.” This research project received the Bahari visiting fellowship in Persian Arts of the Book, from the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford in 2016-2017. She is also a published poet with two collections of poetry: Milad and Pegaah-e Nokhostin. Her third poetry book “Daaman be Khaak Mikeshad Maah” is in the process of being published by “Nashr-e Sales” in Iran.