A witch, a princess, a wife, and a mother. Tahmineh has been remembered through her relationships with the men in her life, but what do we know about the woman herself?
Today I’m joined by Tanaz Bhathena, author of Witch Daughter, to explore a woman from Persian mythology whose choices help shape a famous story, yet whose own life remains largely in the background. Tahmineh appears in the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, the great Persian epic. There, she is the princess who approaches the warrior Rostam and becomes the mother of his son, Sohrab. She makes a bold entrance into the narrative, but we are given only glimpses of her world. Those glimpses became the starting point for Tanaz’s novel. In Witch Daughter, she imagines the experiences, relationships, and desires that might lie behind Tahmineh’s decisions, bringing her into a world shaped by court expectations, family loyalties, and rumours of witchcraft.
For this episode, we’re considering how a woman’s story changes when she is given the opportunity to tell it herself. What happens to the labels attached to her? How do we judge her choices once we understand more of what led to them? And can we sympathise with her without agreeing with everything she does? I came to Witch Daughter unfamiliar with the legend, and I found myself caught up in Tahmineh’s story from the beginning. I’m delighted to welcome Tanaz to discuss the woman behind the novel and the process of bringing her to the life.
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