Shahrnush Parsipur
Tehran, 1946. She started writing short stories and articles at sixteen, and graduated from the University of Tehran in Sociology. When she was twenty-eight, she wrote her first novel, Sag va Zememstaneh Boland (The Dog and the Long Winter, translated into Russian). In the same year, she resigned as producer of Rural Women, a socially inclined weekly programme for National Iranian TV, in protest against the torture and execution of two journalist-poet activists by SAVAK. She was imprisoned for a few months, but later moved to France to study Chinese Philosophy and Language. There, she wrote her second novel, Majerahayeh Sadeh va Kuchake Ruheh Derakht (Plain and Small Adventures of the Spirit of the Tree, 1977.)
In the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution, Shahrnush was forced to return to Iran, where she ended up in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political prison for four years and seven months. As soon as she was released, she published the novel Touba va Maanayeh Shab (Touba and the Meaning of Night), which brought her much fame in Iran. Shahrnush was also subsequently jailed on two further occasions as a result of openly referring to the issue of virginity in her novella, Women without Men. The prominent photographer and filmmaker Shirin Neshat is currently working on an adaptation of the book.
Shahrnush’s other titles include, Prison Memoir, based on her memories of jail, and the philosophical novel Aqle Abi (The Blue Reason, 1989), which was published in the US and Sweden, but never Iran. She is also the author of what might be Iran’s first science fiction novel, Shiva; Bar Baaleh Badd Neshestan (On the Wings of Wind); and two short story collections. Shahrnush has also published widely as a critic and essayist.
In 1992, Shahrnush was invited to tour the US, Canada, and Europe, and participated in the Iowa Writers Workshop Center. She now lives in the US as a political refugee, and has twice received the Hilman-Hammet award. She also received a one year fellowship from Brown University in 2003.
Click here to read The Story of the Men of Sialk Hills by Shahrnush Parsipur.