The Changing Roles of Armenian Women in New Julfa

In this fascinating snapshot of history, Dr. Houri Berberian explains how the Armenian women of New Julfa came to dominate household finances in early modern Iran. The Armenians of New Julfa were a predominantly wealthy mercantile community with large commercial trade networks that spanned the globe. While the men traveled on trade routes for prolonged periods of time, the women who stayed behind took on traditionally male roles and functions and became heads of household in a society where most women were otherwise confined to more narrowly defined gender roles.

Originally published March 2018.

About the speaker

Houri Berberian

Dr. Houri Berberian is Professor of History, Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies, and Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of a number of articles and two books, Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911: “The Love for Freedom Has No Fatherland” (Routledge, 2001) and Roving Revolutionaries: Armenians and the Connected Revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman Worlds (UC Press, 2019).

Houri Berberian