"Dişileştirilmiş" Doğu'da Kadın: Şehrazat ile Peçe Duvarını Yıkmak

Abstract

Orientalism is portrayed by Edward Said within the context of how cultural differences have made the West construct an image of the East with the dichotomy of Orient/Occident. Numerous writings have been engendered depicting Eastern culture, tradition, and religion that shaped the West’s perceptions of the East. These writings have revolved around not only ethnicity and religion but also gender, hence leading to the juxtaposition of the dichotomy Orient-Occident with that of feminine-masculine. This alignment has brought forward the most common stereotype pertaining to the place of woman, in other words, the veiled woman which is a predominant symbol of the East. Thus, the East can be said to have been “feminized” by the West. Initiated by the cultural, political, and religious divide between the West and the East, this “feminization” was deepened by ongoing representations of Oriental women by Westerners in the history of Orientalism: how veiled woman has been kept “silence” in the East. Unlike these representations, there is a powerful woman who broke this silence and inspired Oriental women: Scheherazade. Through her stories, Scheherazade encouraged men to look past their own ignorance and biases, recognize the existence and value of women, and encourage women to remove their own veil to demand their rights. In this paper, the aim is to explore how Scheherazade in The Tales of One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights) inspirited Oriental women through the art of storytelling to fight for emancipation from the engrained stereotypes.