Deconstructing the Story of Iskandar and Faghestan Based on Otherness of Gender Identity

Regardless of the obvious message that is displayed on the cover of any text, sometimes there is another discourse in the context of the content that challenges the intention of the creators of the text in supporting the cover. In the light of reinterpreting and deconstructing the works, the dark labyrinths become clear and new concepts are presented. Ferdowsi and Sa’âlabi's two narratives of the story "Aleksander and the Daughter of the King of India", with a significant difference in the ending, is a familiar story of the marriage bond of the defeated beautiful girl with the conquering king. In examining the secondary discourse, the mechanisms of exercising power over the body are highlighted. Contrary to popular belief, these mechanisms are not only torture, rather, aesthetics is also considered a kind of care network that does not end when a woman enters the "other's" field (father's house) into her own field (wife's house). On the contrary, when a woman wins in the body test prepared by the institution of power, she is considered as a threat to the totalitarianism of the ruling system by deviating from the norms of socialization. In this study, in an analytical-descriptive way and with a sociological point of view, the elements in the mentioned story have been reconstructed and by using the opinions of the thinkers in this field, especially Michel Foucault, the mutual relations between the three elements of "beauty", knowledge", and "power" have been discussed.