Karbala Drag Kings and Queens

Abstract

Taziyeh historians claim that the introduction of veils into the passion play was meant to cover the fact that only men and children took part in the representa- tion of the Karbala tragedy. Women did not participate as actors—or, rather, role-carriers—on the public stage. To depict female characters such as the daugh- ter of the Prophet, Fatemeh, mortal men donned the veil. This minor twist has had major consequences for the ancient traditions of painting in Qajar Iran (- ). Samuel Peterson writes: During the last half of the fifteenth century and until the Qajar period, the veil was an exclusive attribute of holy personages and was not used to cover the faces of women. However, once it became in taziyeh produc- tions a standard part of the costume of women—a sign of their modesty (...) it becomes in Karbela paintings a standard feature of Alid women. No longer used so consistently as the sacred symbol it formerly had been, in Qajar religious painting the veil is ascribed somewhat arbitrarily to holy figures; thus the faces of the Shiih Imams appear veiled and unveiled. (:) On the stage, the tone of the voice and the presence of the veil indicate the gen- der of the character in the taziyeh performances. Young men with soft voices por- trayed female characters; young girls performed certain minor female roles until the age of nine—the age of maturity. One of the early Qajar performers of women's roles, Haji Mulla Hussein from Peek Zarand-Saveh, played female characters so well that each year he had to leave his farm for the months of Muharram and Safar in order to perform at the Takiyeh Dowlat (Royal Takiyeh). In the late Qajar period, Mulla Farjullah Sangani, Haji Mulla Hussein, and Gholi Khan Shahi were three of the most famous female role- carriers and were specifically hired to play the role of Imam Ali's daughter, Zinat (Beizai () :-). With the introduction of the gramophone to the Iranian court under the rule of Muzzaffar al-Din Shah, Gholi Khan Shahi's be- came one of the most recorded voices of the period (Rejai :). According to Bahram Beizai, the female role-carrier would wear a long black shirt which was sometimes decorated with flowers and which reached down to the back of the leg. A second black piece of fabric would cover the head, the arms, and the hands. A third would cover the face, so that only a sliver of the eyes and