What if the divine feminine was not a side note in history, but its original cornerstone?

In The Forgotten Mother Goddess, acclaimed scholar Dilşa Deniz reclaims the long-silenced legacy of the Mother Goddess—a singular, monotheistic feminine deity venerated across continents for millennia. Spanning from the valleys of India and Iran to the mountains of Anatolia and Mesopotamia, Deniz uncovers the shared mythological and spiritual threads that unite figures like the Kurdish Shâmaran, Assyrian Shamurammat, Hindu Shakti, Slavic Zhiva, and others under one ancient divine lineage.

Drawing on her pioneering methodology of mytho-ethnography, Deniz explores how the sacred feminine was gradually erased or fragmented by patriarchal monotheism and colonial historiography. With precision and poetic insight, this book restores the voice, presence, and centrality of the Mother Goddess in the spiritual consciousness of diverse civilizations, challenging deeply entrenched narratives about religious origins and identity.

Ideal for students, scholars, and readers in Goddess Studies, Gender Studies, Religious History, Near Eastern and Middle Eastern Studies, as well as anyone interested in decolonial approaches to mythology and spiritual heritage.

Dilşa Deniz is a Kurdish Alevi scholar specializing in marginalized ethnic, cultural, and religious identities, with a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology and a focus on decolonial, gendered approaches to Kurdish and Near Eastern religious history.