Abstract
Due to the widespread problems in Qajar era, superstitions flourished in this era. Accepting superstitions was very high among women and a great number of women were superstitious to the extent that believing in superstitions was mostly treated as a feminine issue. Superstitions had a great hold in the society. The present study attempts to delve into the causes of believing in superstitions among women in Qajar period. This study employs a descriptive and analytical approach to explain the discourse which led women to accept unreasonable superstitions. It also intends to show how the discourse which led women to accept superstitions worked. The findings of the study revealed that women followed a special way in the social hierarchy and anyone who wanted not to observe the traditional manner had to pay a high price. Women in this hierarchy could only function as wife and mother. Family institution; the social practices and the legal system of this discourse created numerous challenges for women. Fear, insecurity, in their positions, financial dependence, lack of personal identity, being illiterate and ignorant were among the issues which women were always exposed to. Naturally, they took refuge in superstitions to compensate for their misery and social inactivity.
Keywords: Superstitions, Women, Masculine, Talisman, Occult Sciences, Qajar Era.
Introduction
Women in the Qajar era were limited to, performing their role as mothers and sisters, and wife and they had the same problems as their predecessors. Due to living in a male-dominated society, their role was defined based on their relations to men. The environment in which they lived made them prepared since childhood to be chosen by men. If a woman was not chosen by man and didnot bring children, she had lost her role in the society, since there was not any legal system to defend women, and the society was male-dominated, even after marriage women did not have any peace of mind because men possessed all the rights as  polygamy, temporary marriage, the right to divorce, etc. They worried about losing their husbands or their children in an environment full of insecurity.
In that society, women had only role of mother and wife. The family as an institution and the legal system and social practices posed a number of challenges to women. Women faced fear, insecurity, no financial independence, illiteracy and ignorance were among the challenges which women faced. Therefore they turned to superstitions and sought comfort in them, to compensate for their social and practical impotence.
 
Material & Method
The present  study attempts to deal with  the reasons for women' to accept superstitions and the way these women approached superstitions. Therefore, we followed the descriptive historical analysis as the method of this study, which attempts to unravel the discourse which led women to believe in superstitions.
 
Discussion & Result
Among the works consulted for this study, the thesis by Bita Qaemmagami titled "An investigation of superstious beliefs in Iran at Naseri era!" Her study revealed that there was relationship between the social class of people and their belief in superstitions. Moreover, superstitions had political role as well. The results of her research showed that we had the spread of superstitions such as fortune telling, the conjunction of the stellar globes and planets, which were widespread in the Naseri era among the literate, illiterate and both men and women, and the poor and the rich.
The next work consulted by this study was Ja'fari and Rezae (1390) titled "The attitude of Shiite women in the Safavid era towards superstition and wrong beliefs”. Based on the above-mentioned study, attention to story-telling in the society and the discrimination facing women and their illiteracy, were among the significant reasons for women to seek superstitions. Since women are very significant in raising children, their beliefs were transferred to their children and led to the flourishing of superstitions.
Another study by Rahmanian and Hatami (1391) titled "Black magic, talisman, spells and the world of women in the Qajar era” was also consulted for the present study. Based on their study, living in a male-dominated society which treated women as weak and insignificant led women to take refuge in superstitions. This belief led women to believe themselves as weak and insignificant. It also led women to consider themselves as weak and also caused them to accept the deprivation of their rights in a society which had high value for traditions which pictured women as lacking brains. However, with the emergence of the modern paradigm and its spread among the intellectuals, women's use of superstitions was attributed to their cultural, social and old structures, which dominated their lives.
In all of the above-mentioned studies a defective and limited approach has been used to the beliefs of women in their attention to superstitions. They have attributed the situation to the inequality of women's conditions compared to men. They also have attributed this problem to the weakness of women. However, this article attempts to describe the discoursal elements of women which have played a decisive role in women's attention to superstitions and applying them in their lives. Through this approach, this study intends to consider both the reasons for women's desire for superstitions and the manner of this zest for superstitions.
 
Conclusion
In Iran, at the Qajar era, the tendency and desire for superstitions and false beliefs was very high, and widespread. The elite and the intellectuals considered these false beliefs and superstition among the primary reasons for the backwardness of the society Women's role in this respect was very significant because they were responsible for raising children and bringing up the next generations. The intellectuals considered women's zest for superstitions among the social inadequacy of the society and they believed that  the only way to get rid of it was the reconsideration of the system of values in the society to put an end to the old and worn out structures of the society with regard to the conditions of women. The limited world of the women in that era, only had accepted the role of wife and mother for women. Any failure on the part of being wife and mother led to very serious troubles for women. The roles of women were defined with regard to men which led to weakness of women's character and the lack of support of the legal system for women, the social values, and the male-dominated family and the polygamy of men, temporary marriage etc, all contributed to fear and anxiety of women with regard to their husbands and children whom they most of time were scared of losing. Along with male-dominated structures of the society, lack of proper educational system, lack of adequate public health, social insecurity, famine and natural disasters, all of them, boosted women's beliefs in superstitions and unreasonable beliefs.
Therefore, women's zest for superstitions and their beliefs in unreasonable and superstitious beliefs acted as a compensation for the above-mentioned problems.