• FATEMEH JABBARI

The present paper's primary focus is to study the gender identity represented through the photographs of the Parsi community in the colonial India of the 19th century. The paper aims to attempt to explore the visual and contextual elements in the construction of this identity. Indeed, as a micro-minority, the Parsi community achieved a remarkable significance and social status in the period of colonial India. Due to their great wealth, power and close ties with the colonizers, Parsis could easily afford to possess a camera. The possession of the camera enabled them to represent their own identity through their self-realization and, thus, escape the colonial perspective. As an influential community in India, the Parsi women had relatively more access to education and enjoyed a fair level of gender equality as compared to women from other communities. The paper seeks to analyse selected photographs in the light of gender power equations and the impact of social and cultural values on the representation.

Key Words: Persia, Parsi, identity, gender representation, India, photography, colonialism.

"Woman and Photography: Gender Representation in the 19th Century Photography of Parsis in India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 12, page no.f99-f106, December-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2112512.pdf

"Woman and Photography: Gender Representation in the 19th Century Photography of Parsis in India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 12, page no. ppf99-f106, December-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2112512.pdf