Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur tells the stories of five Iranian women who visit the same garden, set around the 1950’s. The book sleeve describes her works as “among the first feminist-conscious enunciations that appeared in the post revolutionary period in response to limitations imposed on women by the state ideology.” It was translated from Persian to English in 1998. Since most of the books I’ve read have been written by Americans and Europeans, I knew that a book depicting a different culture would be really interesting for me to read. I didn’t come into the book with a ton of background knowledge, but I anticipated that the book would be a good way to gain that knowledge. In a way, it was because it depicted everyday life for this group of women.
Before I discuss the book, I think I should put a content warning because the book talks about rape and murder. They’re not central to the discussion, but they still are part of important scenes.
After finishing reading the novella, I think that the author did a great job of writing captivating scenes and complex characters. The women are not perfect and grapple with their own unrealized, internalized misogyny, but you still feel for them because of the oppressive, patriarchal society they’ve grown up in. Surrealism infuses the story towards the end, and I am still trying to wrap my head around what sort of metaphor it was trying to create. The last chapters of the novel give each women a neatly wrapped ending, and I liked the emphasis on how it was neither good nor bad for them; it was just life. The chapters ended with quotes such as “Their relationship is satisfactory, neither warm nor cold.” I think this is much more realistic than “everything was great” or “the rest of her life was awful.” I appreciated the nuance throughout the book.
A large recurring theme in the book was virginity. In the beginning, the women respect single women less if they were not virgins. They thought they were impure and some went as far as to believe they deserved death for having sex out of wedlock. The violent thoughts towards these women were hard to read, especially because there are plenty of women who think the exact same things. One of the women, Munis, reads a book titled The Secret of Sexual Satisfaction or How to Know Our Bodies. After she reads this book, the characters slowly begin to shed their obsession with purity. Later on, two of the women, including Munis, are raped, and the other cannot stop crying knowing that her purity is gone. Although I think the way that they brush off the assault was somewhat jarring, I was glad to finally hear the characters discuss that virginity isn’t a big deal. After this, I don’t remember that the word virginity even comes up again. There is also this recurring scene of a woman being upset and banging her head against something. It got to the point where it almost felt like dark humor.
We also see all of the women wanting to transcend themselves somehow, whether that is becoming famous, becoming one with nature, or feeling like they “won” against a man. It was interesting seeing the different things the women fixated upon in order to feel liberated. I think it helps to support choice feminism, which is the idea that it isn’t more or less feminist to be a girlboss CEO or housewife; the point is that you get to choose. Some women marry, some give birth, some don’t, but they all are just experiencing life and trying to attain what they want. There was one part in which Munis says she wants to leave so that she can protect women from being killed so easily by men, but (unless I skimmed over something accidentally) this idea just sort of dissipates. Instead they travel, but I was imagining a group of women that defend other women. I think the actual events are more realistic, but I was a bit confused why the idea was suddenly dropped.
The coup that occurred in 1953 is also in the background of some of the passages. It was intriguing to read about how everyday people reacted to it. It seemed like most people thought it was best to just stay inside as long as they could to avoid the chaos in the streets. There were some people who went out for errands or to visit people when they started to feel restless from staying inside. This is the second story I’ve read recently that shows people just going about their day during something so traumatic, and they’ve both made me appreciate seeing this perspective. Often you read about what was going on in terms of battles or politics rather than the impact on typical people’s lives. It adds an extra layer of understanding by seeing that perspective.
Overall I really enjoyed the novella. Although I may not have fully grasped the surrealism at the end, I thought the different themes and topics the book explored were interesting and well done. I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who thought it seemed intriguing based on my article. It’s just over 100 pages, so it’s a good quick read.
Let me know your thoughts!