Gendered Transformations: Beauty, Love, and Sexuality in Qajar Iran

Qajar Iran (1785-1925) began with notions of beauty that were largely gender-undifferentiated; that is, beautiful men and women were depicted with very similar facial and bodily features. Sometimes the only way one can tell who is male or female is through style of headgear. Other times it remains very difficult to tell if we are looking at a man or a woman. In written sources, the same adjectives, such as moon-faced (māh ṭal ᶜ at), rose-faced (gul rukhsar), cypress-statured sarv qāmat or sarv qad), ruby lips (la ᶜ l lab), bow-eyebrows (kamān abrū), or alternatively crescent eyebrows (hilāl abrū), black-scented hair (mushgīn mū), narrow-waist (miyān bārīk or kamar bārīk), narcissus-eyed (nargīs chashm), etc., are used to describe male and female beauty.