Women without men - Shahrnush Parsipur

Shortly after the 1989 publication of 'Women Without Men' in her native Iran, Shahrnush Parsipur was arrested and jailed for her frank and defiant portrayal of women's sexuality. Now banned in Iraq, along with the rest of this brave and prolific writer's work, this small masterpiece was eventually translated into several languages, and introduces English-speaking readers to the work of a brilliant Persian writer. With a tone that is stark and bold, yet magical, as its elegantly drawn settings and characters, this novel creates an evocative allegory of life for contemporary Iranian women. Parsipur follows the interwoven destinies of five women -- including a schoolteacher, a housewife and a prostitute -- as they arrive, by many different paths, to live in a garden on the outskirts of Tehran. Using the deceptively simple structure of a fairytale, and drawing on elements from Islamic mysticism and recent Iranian history, this novel depicts women escaping the narrow confines of family and society -- only to face daunting new challenges.