Women without Men

Our Library Assistant, Pascale was so moved by Women without men by Shahrnush Parsipur that she was telling everyone in the library about it earlier this month. So, of course, I asked her to write a review of it for the Blog.

A gripping novella, ie a short novel, Women without men is not what the title infers until two-thirds of the book is read. Five Iranian women, from different backgrounds and with different life experiences, meet on the way to a life without men, ‘a garden in Karaj’. Until then, they face lust and contempt, rape and murder, violent relationships to men altogether. They suffer from self-denial, frustration and self-oppression, the result of a society built up on the suppression of female desire, symbolised in the worship of virginity. A life without men is not going to be heaven anyway!

The stories have something of the fairy tale about them, surreal events happen, nature plays its part, and Parsipur’s writing makes them light and easy to read, even though some tales are horrid. It is a creative though easy literature to introduce oneself to the Iranian society.

Shahrnush Parsipur went into exile in the United States in 1994, five years after Women Without Men (Zanan bedun mardan) was published, and banned, in Iran.

The good news for Pascale (and others who enjoy the book) is that it has been made into a movie and those who attended the Auckland Film Festival this year might remember it. Hopefully there will be a DVD available soon.