"In all the lands of Persia, yes," Roshanak says, her own dark eyes brightening as she warms to the subject. "One of the greatest of our queens, the Sultana Scheherazade, she saved all the girls in the kingdom by telling stories night after night. Tales already known, in some cases, but it was her own skill at crafting that allowed her to triumph.

Ever since then, a woman's art of words and stories has been highly valued, even more than before her time."