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Persian folk culture and literature, largely oral literature, has been mostly forgotten due to the dominance of aristocratic literature, but what is left of it is also because of the same aristocratic literature, especially for the narrative works such as Faraj Ba’ad Az Sheddat. Through these works, we have access to unique experiences of folk culture. Such folk narrative prose texts are appropriate bases for examining the cultural reflections in various contexts, including issues related to women’s status. This study tries to employ a new approach on the ancient prose, and further show that the same narratives have been considered from the formalistic approach so far, but new points of view and perspective could be employed as well. To this aim, the critical discourse analysis approach based on the theory of Fairclough was applied on the sample text at three levels of description, interpretation, and explanation. This research seeks to demonstrate power of women and its cause. The study, focusing on the women's role, agency, and presence and engagement, shows that despite their minor significance, a woman is a symbol of courage in the aftermath of severity, while in the story, the woman, audacious and brave, rebukes against traditions and breaks taboos. As a result, it was concluded that women have an active and powerful role in this text, and their leading role as an agent in the formation of story is evident. Although there is an unequal power relation between men and women, reading between lines, it could be claimed that unlike aristocratic male-dominant discourse, women have sources of power as well. They react against the particular hegemony to achieve their specific goas. Finally, it was found that the agentive role of the women plays a key part in the formation of narrative and explanation of their sources of power.

Keywords: Woman, agency, Faraj Ba’ad Az Sheddat, Dokhtar-e Nabbash, critical discourse analysis, Fairclough, folk literature

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