Despite visual and textual evidence standing the test of time in areas such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Iran and Syria, the historical manuscripts and antiquities that could provide insight on women and gender-related concepts in the ancient world prior to ancient Greece remained for long a neglected research area. The lack of due attention catalyzed the need for this book, which investigates feminist representations based on modern critical theories on gender, psychoanalysis and historical criticism which, all combined, provide a methodical structure that not only triggers in-depth exploration of this ancient culture but also embarks on deriving lessons from the past.

The first chapter outlines an overview of the feminist theory and how it has evolved over the past three decades in the areas of humanities and sociology. Starting her book by raising the question “what is women’s history?’, Bahrani explains that the most common definition of the term has often positioned women in the household and family space and men in the much wider space of employment and ruling, blaming adrocentrism for the misconceptions that shrouded the history of women. She discusses in detail the different emphases and concerns of the three so-called waves of feminist scholarship, from the ‘60s to the present time. But she observes that the study of ancient societies presents a different set of problems than are found in contemporary societies, the focus of most feminist scholars.

The author addresses the question of how woman, gender, and femininity in a past culture are accessed through the visual record in “Envisioning Difference”. She seems critical of the application of “art for art’s sake, a view that is European and modern and that “ideologies of gender are inherent in various representations, and it is here that an engendered reading can enrich and diversify the standard focus on a coercive state ideology still preferred by Near Eastern scholarship”

Chapter 3 explores the gender structure in Mesopotamian culture through focus on the body and nudity. In Bahrani’s opinion, “It is necessary to study the body in art as a representational sign, and not as a simple reflection of real and living bodies in antiquity” (p. 40). This chapter makes significant observations on the differences between masculine and feminine visual and literary images.

Mesopotamia’s female nudity was chiefly associated with sexual seduction. While female bodies were often displayed in frontal poses for the eye to better examine the woman’s sexual organs, masculine nudity was used for iconic purposes, sometimes to convey negative connotations such as death or defeat or positive ones such as masculine power and heroism.

Most striking in ancient manuscripts is that, despite the many terms referring to certain parts of the anatomy, the term ‘nudity’ was non-existent. And despite the depiction of the female body as a symbol of allure and seduction in Mesopotamia, the Greeks rejected this attribute staunchly. Both cultures praised the female form but each using distinct ways.

Bahrani shed light on the paramount role of myths in determining the cultural hierarchy of a certain community and it is here that the significance of goddess Ishtar in Assyrian and Babylonian culture is highlighted. A special infatuation was developed with this goddess of love and war, which possessed at the same time a sexually seductive nature and a propensity for violence. Assyriology suggested that Ishtar was hermaphroditic, but how this feature was ascribed to the goddess remained somewhat unclear and was likely rooted in her use of weapons. Bahrani criticizes the opinions that have wrongly emphasized Ishtar’s hermaphroditism and argued that her transgressions worked to clarify gender roles for Mesopotamians by delineating what constituted the boundaries of gendered behaviors.

The last chapter explores how the remarkable archaeological finds in the nineteenth century influenced the newly emerging discipline of art history.

All in all, the book is a landmark study that serves as valuable instructive reference for people wishing to gain insight into issues of women and gender in ancient Near Eastern art and literature.