Shahrnush Parsipur, Iranian author of Women Without Men, dies at 80

The revered writer and political exile’s publisher says her ‘legacy in literary history can’t be compared to anyone else’s’

Shahrnush Parsipur, the celebrated Iranian writer whose subversive works of feminist fiction saw her repeatedly imprisoned, has died aged 80.

A pioneer of women’s literature in Iran, Parsipur excoriated the country’s patriarchal culture in novels including Women Without Men and Touba and the Meaning of Night. She was imprisoned four times, under the Shah and then the Islamic Republic.

In 2026, her novel Women Without Men was published in the UK for the first time – translated from Persian to English by Faridoun Farrokh – and was longlisted for the International Booker prize.

“Shahrnush’s legacy in literary history can’t really be compared to anyone else’s,” said her UK publisher Denise Rose Hansen. “Her singular vision and incredible courage have been, and will continue to be, a guiding star for so many people. Being in touch with her just a few days ago, she was as she always was: generous, warm, forthright, quick, brilliant. She will be profoundly missed.”

Born 17 February 1946 in Tehran, Parsipur studied sociology at the University of Tehran. Her first novel, The Dog and the Long Winter, was published in 1974, making her Iran’s second female novelist, following Simin Daneshvar and her book Souvashun in 1969. Parsipur’s debut is about a young Iranian woman introduced to activism via her brother and his friends.

Parsipur was first imprisoned after resigning from her job as a producer on an Iranian state TV programme over the execution of two poets by Savak, the Iranian secret police. She was later imprisoned during the 80s for four years and seven months without being formally charged. She wrote about her experience in Prison Memoir, which will be published in its entirety in English for the first time in 2027.

In 1989, she published Touba and the Meaning of Night, a historical novel setting the life story of one woman, Touba, against an ever-changing 20th-century Iran. After her father dies, 14-year-old Touba marries a 52-year-old man, who quickly divorces her over her outspoken nature. She then marries a prince, with whom she has four children, but when he ends up being unfaithful, she divorces him, ultimately becoming a matriarch. The novel will be published in English translation in the UK by Penguin in 2028.

In 1989, Parsipur also published Women Without Men, the title a nod to Hemingway’s Men Without Women. Set in Tehran during the 1953 coup d’état, the novel links the stories of five women who seek freedom from patriarchal oppression in a garden. A film adaptation directed by Shirin Neshat was released in 2009.

The novel became an underground success in Iran; soon, the wife of an Islamic Republic official came across it, and Parsipur was imprisoned again, this time over her depiction of women’s sexuality. From 1994 onwards, Parsipur lived in political exile in the US.

“The women of Iran have changed so much, so many without hijab,” she said in an interview with the Guardian in March. “They don’t care what the Islamic Republic thinks.” Iran’s women “will cause the fall of the Islamic Republic,” she added.

Parsipur had wanted to become a writer since she was a child. In another March interview, she said that she had read the Persian translation of Great Expectations 36 times in a row, and credited it with teaching her how to write. Alongside Dickens, she cited Dostoevsky and Kafka as influences.

Her other books include The Blue Reason, Shiva, Trial Offer and Tea Ceremony in the Presence of the Wolf.