A Study on Iranian Women Issues from Pre-Islamic Era until Islamic Revolution from the Viewpoint of Foreign Travel Writers

The present research studies Iranian women issues from pre-Islamic era until Islamic revolution from the point of view of travel writers; considers women problems as well as their negative behaviors and investigates the travel writers’ position in reflecting the status of an Iranian woman. The research is based on thematic analysis. Through categorizing women status into three categories, proposition related to “women negative ethos” and“oppression of women” were extracted. According to the findings of the study, despite some undeniable propositions, lack of true understanding of the Iranian society by travel writers was seen to be occasionally at work in their reports. Thus, the travel writers’ perception of women issues can be studied in three modes: first, those who relied on their imaginations or cited other travel writers’ statements on Iranian women without having access to women. Second, those maletravel writers who had access to women and third, those female travel writers who had relations withIranian women. The variety of observations and discrepanciesin these three categories indicate that the claims made by the travel writers about Iranian women status need to be taken into consideration with more care and caution depending on theirextent of access to the Iranian feminine society.