Thick eyebrows, a well-defined mustache, and a face without Western makeup: that was what the ideal of feminine beauty looked like in 19th-century Persia. It was neither a rarity nor a flaw — it was the standard. The princesses of the Qajar dynasty, daughters of Shah Nasar al-Din, posed for photographs with those features as a sign of distinction and elegance.
Historian Afsaneh Najmabadi, of Harvard University, documented it in her academic book: in that time and culture, facial hair on women was a highly coveted trait. Not a passing trend — an aesthetic convention as deeply rooted as a slim waist or full lips may be today.
What this reminds us of is brutal in its simplicity: beauty has no fixed rules. Every era, every culture, draws that mold from scratch. What today is urgently removed was yesterday worn with pride. How many of our current standards will seem just as strange in 150 years? 🤔