Women Without Men

Shahrnush Parsipur was born in Iran in 1946. She began her career as a writer of fiction and producer at Iranian National Television and Radio. She was imprisoned for nearly five years by the Islamist government without being formally charged. Shortly after her release, she published Women Without Men and was arrested and jailed again, this time for her frank and defiant portrayal of women’s sexuality. While still banned in Iran, the novel became an underground best-seller there, and has been translated into many languages around the world. She was also the author of Touba and the Meaning of Night, among many other books, and lived in exile in Northern California until her death in 2026.Faridoun Farrokh was born and educated in Iran, where he began a teaching career. As an academic, his research has focused on eighteenth-century English literature, contemporary Iranian fiction, as well as literary translation. His English language translation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women Without Men was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.

Parsipur's layered tales, glittering in a fresh translation, continue to beckon you into a world that is simultaneously scoured by reality, and touched with fable and myth