Since the rise of a distinctive urban culture in the Sassanid Empire (224–651 C.E.), the built environment in Iran has reinforced sexual differences, articulated assumptions about gender, and symbolically embodied gendered identities. Patronage allowed royal women like Gawhar Shad of the Timurid dynasty to exercise power by endowing urban institutions and shrines (Rizvi 2000). Women's physical presence in the city, however, was often restricted. As women were increasingly excluded from public spaces (especially…