ABSTRACT
In the series of stories known as “Tales from the Thousand and One Nights,” Scheherazade finds herself in a peculiar predicament. The king of Persia, disillusioned by the disloyalty of his queen, has decided to love only virgins. Each will spend a night with him, only to be beheaded in the morning. Scheherazade is determined to avoid this fate: “When the king had taken the maiden to his chamber and had lain with her, she wept and said: I have a young sister to whom I wish to bid farewell” (Dawood, 1973: 22-23).
