A review by alundeberg
Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran by Shahrnush Parsipur

4.0

Intense, but powerful novella that weaves in magical realism to reveal the complexities of modern Iran and its repressive regime against women. By focusing on the lives of five different women, Parsipur shows how women's lives are skewed by a lack of agency, education, rights over their body, and good marriages. It turns women against each other as they place the blame that should be on men rather than on other women. Much of the book is metaphorical as the women struggle to find a way of life that suits them and gives them what they need. It's a very sad novel as even though the women are taken out of bad situations, their resolutions are not easy, nor satisfying. I think Parsipur is trying to show how much women are damaged by such a regime and healing is not a straightforward outcome.