politics
March 15, 2026
Shahrnush Parsipur: ‘The women of Iran will cause the fall of the Islamic Republic’
As her banned 1989 novella, Women Without Men, is published for the first time in the UK, the Iranian author looks back on a life of resistance and repression
TL;DR
- Shahrnush Parsipur's banned novella 'Women Without Men' is being published in the UK and was longlisted for the International Booker prize.
- Parsipur, 80, has faced imprisonment in Iran for her writings that explore women's bodies and sexuality, with the taboo topic of virginity being a particular point of contention.
- The novella 'Women Without Men' blends magical realism and allegory to depict five women finding refuge from male control and societal shame in a shared garden.
- Parsipur believes the emphasis on virginity in Iran causes significant suffering for women, and she wrote the book to alleviate this burden.
- Despite living in exile, Parsipur remains a voice of resistance, predicting that the changing attitudes and growing independence of Iranian women will lead to the downfall of the Islamic Republic.