Shahrnush Parsipur, the Iranian novelist whose work transformed the female experience, history and magical realism into acts of political resistance, has died aged 80.
Born in Tehran in 1946, Parsipur is regarded as one of Persian literature’s most uncompromising voices. Across works including طوبی و معنای شب (1989; translated as Touba and the Meaning of Night in 2006) and زنان بدون مردان (1989; Women Without Men, 2011), she confronted censorship and imprisonment by insisting on women’s bodies and inner lives as subjects of literary and political seriousness.
Parsipur was imprisoned under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic. Following the publication of Women Without Men, whose frank treatment of female sexuality led to its ban in Iran, Parsipur spent nearly five years in jail without formal charge before later being arrested again. She would later write about the experience in her 1996 prison memoir Kissing the Sword.
Censorship only amplified the influence of Women Without Men. Passed hand-to-hand as an underground classic before finding an international readership, it became a landmark work of modern Iranian literature, giving space to women’s thoughts, desires and acts of refusal under conditions designed to silence them.
In 1994, Parsipur moved to California, where she lived in political exile and remained a fierce advocate for artistic and political freedom.
In recent months, as Women Without Men reached new English-language readers through this year’s International Booker longlisting, Parsipur’s work has returned with renewed force, speaking directly about control, fear and female autonomy, and reflecting a lifelong refusal to let censorship determine what can be imagined or said.
In 2009, Women Without Men was adapted into an award-winning feature film by artist Shirin Neshat.
Read next Shahrnush Parsipur in conversation with Shirin Neshat
