The role of women in the Safavid period Emphasizing on Reza Abbasi's works

Seeking to compete with the Ottoman regime and in order to balance the power, Safavid rulers expanded relations with other countries, and these interactions affected the social life of Iranian society deeply. The social status of Iranian women improved and women had become prominent in the political and cultural spheres. The image of women has also been affected by this process in Iranian painting (miniature), and they, which were presented as complementary elements previously, had become the single or main element of the miniatures. Reza Abbasi is one of the greatest Safavid miniaturist and one of the pioneers of single-miniatures. In his work, women have been illustrated independently and men have been depicted as sub-elements. The present paper through a descriptive-analytic method and based on visual and textual data, is aimed at achieving the characteristics of woman's portraits in Reza Abbasi's works.