How Can King Schahriar And His Brother Be Considered A Feminist Text?

"In what ways can "King Schahriar and his Brother" be considered a feminist text?"

During the 18th century, a collection of Middle-Eastern and South Asian stories were compiled into a book now known as "One Thousand and One Nights". The opening story in the collection is "King Schahriar and his Brother", and it is a story about how the king of the Persian Empire turned to cruelty and violence after finding out his lover had committed adultery. Despite the king being the main character, we have an array of different, interesting characters such as the Grand Vizier, and his daughter, Scheherazade, who is the "hero" of the story. The text is quite abnormal for a folktale, as it does not follow the typical structure and format a folktale does.

Another aspect which sets it apart from other "folktales" is the way women are portrayed throughout the story. Scheherazade is initiator of change in the story, and I will attempt to clarify why this turns "King Schahriar and his Brother" into a feminist text.
In order to understand why "King Schahriar and his Brother" is considered a feminist text, we need to understand how women are portrayed in a typical folktale. A well-known folktale which could be used to explain this is "Sleeping Beauty". The main character in the folktale is named Aurora, and she fits the mold of everything a "proper woman" should be. Aurora is kind-hearted and gentle towards both animals and humans, good-looking, and behaves in a quintessential feminine manner (gentle, graceful, shy). In the story, she enters a curse-induced coma due to pricking her finger on a needle, and then saved by a kiss from a prince. The reason why this folktale is not considered a "feminist" text is due to the way Aurora is presented. Female characters are notoriously written with no depth, or any original qualities which have not yet been used before. Essentially, Aurora is a very shallow character, as she is devoid of any complexity and flaws. The personality she is given is not very deep, as she is denied any raw, human emotion such as fury, revulsion, or misery. Who is to say she would have approved of having the prince kiss her with no consent? She is unjustly robbed of having the right to be angry. Aurora is seen as an inspiration by young, naive girls due to her being considered the pinnacle of femininity. This circumstance is extremely detrimental to women, especially developing girls, as it sets an expectation that is too inhuman and high for any real human being to reach. Aurora's presentation ultimately leads to actual dehumanization of non-fictional women, which will affect both how they are treated by men, and how they perceive themselves.
Another critical aspect of "The Sleeping Beauty" which distances the label "feminist" is the fact that Aurora is the protagonist, yet she has very little to do with the development of the plot. The phenomenon described earlier is no mistake, as it is intentional. Aurora is hexed by an evil woman known as Maleficent, and then the prince comes to save the day, which makes two points as stark as daylight. On the surface, it is clear the story hints that a woman is not capable of saving herself. Aurora is not even portrayed as a damsel in distress, with an opportunity to attempt to think over solutions, as she is in a coma. Again, she is not given the possibility of saving herself. The only way she can return to life is if the prince saves her, which presents him as a hero, and grants him a crucial part of the plot, whilst our protagonist is deemed as useless. The story also hints more subtly in another direction which encourages us to examine the cause of why Aurora entered a coma in the first place. The antagonist in "The Sleeping Beauty" is a powerful, malevolent woman known as Maleficent. She places a curse on Aurora after she is not invited to her christening. Maleficent's character also presents another reason why this text is not "feminist", due to there being a polar portrayal of power and weakness in women. Maleficent, who possesses power, is considered evil, while Aurora, who is the typical female archetype, is considered ideal. This is where the prince is given even more value as a hero, as he essentially "ended" the conflict between Maleficent and Aurora. This adds onto why the text is not a feminist text; it undeniably states to the audience, who are young children, that a man is needed in order to resolve conflicts.
Since it has been established how women are presented in typical folktales, we can proceed to see why "King Schahriar and his Brother" could be considered a feminist text.

Scheherazade, the grand vizier's daughter, plays a pivotal position in the plot of the story. As mentioned earlier, the king of the Persian Empire had found out his wife had committed adultery, and as revenge, he wed a woman every night, and had her executed the following morning. No one acted against the king, quite the contrary, people cowered in fear, and merely hoped bad luck would skip them. Scheherazade, on the other hand, was not one of these people, as she decided to take matters into her own hand, and end this injustice. She uses her intelligence and all the resources she can access to pacify the king. One of these resources is her craftiness and intelligence. She is capable of shifting and morphing to adapt to her environment like a chameleon; when asking her father to allow her to marry the king, she says "I implore you, by all the affection you bear me, to allow the honour to fall upon me." Her speech is formal, and we can assume that it is deliberate. The word "implore" is used to convey her strong emotions, particularly her desperation. She uses the pronoun "you" twice in that sentence, and that is meant to direct the grand-vizier's full attention to Scheherazade and make him listen to her more carefully, as well as to emphasize his importance and impact on her plan. The phrase "all the

affection you bear me" is a testimony to her cunning; she says that as a form of "emotional blackmail" in order to make her father feel guilt and persuade him. She uses language which is often used in folktales, such as "allow the honour to fall upon me" (that phrase is used in the context of "heroes", and she is very clearly putting herself in the position of a hero). "Allow the honour to fall upon me" has connotations of a martyr, who is out to achieve a great purpose. It is heroic in nature to take on a dangerous challenge, and deeming it as an "honour", and she does so without any apparent hesitation. She is shown to be courageous, independent, and an initiator. She defies the typical feminine archetype due to the fact that she is shown as the innovator, and as the one who takes charge (whether it is while conversing with her father, or getting the king to comply to her wishes), and that is believed to be a "man's role". She has carefully planned out this scheme, and proved that she is cunning, and capable of using her intelligence to the fullest extent. This fact, on it's own, just defies gender roles in folktales. Furthermore, her being intelligent or taking on commonly believed "masculine" roles is not presented at the cost of her femininity. In fact, Scheherazade uses her femininity as a weapon to help her succeed in ending the ruthless killings. All of these aspects together form a complex character, who most importantly is very believable. As a character, Scheherazade is quite human-like, as she is not written in such a way to make her fit into a specific character trope, rather as a complicated, unique result of her external environment. The way Scheherazade is written is accurate in it's portrayal of how non-fictional women are, as they are a collection of different, sometimes contradicting traits, who are more than the roles assigned to them by where they align in the gender-binary.
Scheherazade is arguably the most important character to the development of the story, despite not being the protagonist.

She has the most active role in the story, which is ending the killing of the young women by the king. She declares that "If I fail, my death will be a glorious one, and if I succeed I shall have done a great service to my country.", which proves how active of a role she has in the plot. The language which she uses has "heroic" connotations to it. A "glorious death" is usually a phrase used to describe the death of a hero who sacrified himself for the sake of his country or his beliefs. A hero who died a "glorious death" is remembered dearly and appreciated greatly by the people of his town. Scheherazade's words could be interpreted to have a deeper meaning beyond the obvious. When a hero dies a "glorious death" it is not in vain, indicating that even if her plan had failed, her death would not be meaningless nor pointless. She had calculated it and weighed out the possibilities to know that even if she died, she would still have such an impact that her death would be considered a glorious one. The phrase "glorious death" could also be considered a contradiction, due to the contrasting nature of the words "glorious" and "death". Typically, death would not be considered "glorious", rather gruesome or tragic. The contradiction further proves how active of a role she has due to the fact that she planned everything so thoroughly to the point of being able

to state (as a fact) that her death would be glorious. She later says if she does succeed then she would have done a "great service to my country". Having done a "great service" is seen as a noble, heroic act in most contexts, as well as in this one, which further validates her role in the plot. Heroes do great service to their country, and their aim is to save as many innocent people as they can. The word "service" further adds to the image of a hero, as it shows she possesses the selflessness in order to initiate dramatic change. She adopts a courageous role which requires careful planning, as it is a matter of life or death. This alone explains why the text "King Schahriar and his Brother" is considered a feminist text. Scheherazade challenges the gender roles assigned to her by her society as she takes on a "masculine" role. She is simultaneously the "damsel in distress" and the hero. The reason why this text should be considered a feminist text is because Scheherazade is never shown to believe her actions are masculine, nor aggressive, rather she does not label her actions considering gender at all. Feminism is about dismantling the patriarchy which is embedded as the base in society (this does not change much regarding region - it is only how it is expressed which is different). One of patriarchy's main roles is to create a clear, distinct border of what a man should do, versus what a woman should do. In Scheherazade's case, she does not consider that at all, therefore ridding certain actions in specific contexts - in this case, a woman being a leader and an initiator of change - from the power which they are meant to possess. She does not let fictitious boundaries limit her from reaching her full potential and achieving her goals.