A Structural Analysis of Women's Peace-Oriented Agency within the Dominant Heroic Logic in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh

Peace and non-peace, as fluid and relational concepts, derive meaning through mutual negation, making the ontological primacy of either difficult to establish. Despite its positive connotations, peace often denotes compromise and pragmatic coexistence rather than genuine harmony. Within the mythic framework, peace opposes non-peace, understood as structural violence, and ultimately war. As the foremost epic of Persian literature, Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh not only narrates warfare but also reveals the structural violence underlying conflict. Peace thus emerges as a tragic problem that generates ethical tension within the epic. While Rostam seeks to affirm the value of peace, even through warfare, the women of the Shahnameh likewise strive to preserve it, yet frequently remain “subjugated heroes of the peace camp.”Using a critical-analytical approach and directed qualitative content analysis, this study examines “Rostam and Sohrab” and “Rostam and Esfandiar.” After elucidating the role of structural violence in producing non-peace, the article focuses on Tahmineh, Gordafarid, and Katayoun. The findings show that their agency becomes entrapped in a tragic network where aspirations for peace conflict with the epic logic of war, death, and patriarchy. Consequently, despite efforts toward reconciliation and conflict avoidance, these women are ultimately defeated, and non-peace prevails.