Ma`rifat Adyan

This study investigates the relationship between the mythological narrative of the creation of woman and the institutionalization of gender discrimination in the Sasanian period. Its central question examines how the mythic account of woman’s creation is represented within the Zoroastrian religious tradition. The research employs a descriptive–analytical method based on the study of primary Pahlavi texts. The findings indicate that in later Zoroastrian myths, women are represented within a dualistic opposition of “good” and “evil.” On the one hand, they are associated with the demon Jeh, the symbol of corruption and seduction; on the other, in the figure of Mashyane, woman assumes responsibility for the Fall and falsehood, thereby bearing the burden of a doubled evil. This mythic discourse, which portrays the creation of woman as inherently tainted by Ahrimanic elements, functioned as an ideological instrument in the hands of Sasanian priests and lawmakers, enabling them to justify and institutionalize a wide range of purity regulations (such as those concerning menstruation), as well as legal and social restrictions imposed upon women. Consequently, these narratives not only reflected the patriarchal attitudes of their time but also played a decisive role in legitimizing gender hierarchies and consolidating the structural subordination of women within that society.