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

I read this novel several months ago in connection with my research study, which is based on contemporary artist Shirin Neshat's work. The novel is composed of five stories of five women in the wake of coup d'etat in Iran in 1953. It is forbidden in Iran and it costed its author several years in prison.

It is a very short novel, perhaps a novella, with 130 pages. It offers an enjoyable read. I started reading the book in the morning, and finished by night. The fantasy elements in the narration give an air of mystery, which is associated with the nature of womanhood. Although I do not remember many details, I still want to say a couple of things about this novel, because it is an interesting piece of work that needs attention.

The five women are (1) Makhdot, who wants to become a tree because she wants to bear children but she is afraid of the pains that sexual intercourse might bring; (2) Zarrinkolah, a former prostitute since childhood. She suddenly starts seeing her customers, and gradually every man on the street faceless; (3) Munis, who dies two times in the novel and comes back to life again; (4) Faizeh, soaked in vulgar superstitions; and (5)Golchehreh, unhappy in her marriage, slightly older than the other women.
The title 'Women without Men' indicates the adventure of these five women to set up a utopic garden estate where they dream of living in harmony away from their routine lives. Having left their habits, five women gather in a garden where they set up a house and employ a gardener, who is the only male in their utopic estate. In the novel, women are apparently associated with nature and a sort of metaphysical realm which is mysterious and beyond the reach of phallogocentricism. But how does a male gardener fit in this picture? In Persian symbology, gardens are places of transcendence. The garden motif is very central in the novel. How about the gardener?

Born in Iran, living and producing in the US, Shirin Neshat has set out to film the stories of the five women narrated in the novel. She has filmed two stories so far: Makhdot (2004) and Zarin (2005). They are marvellous pieces of art. Neshat plans an installation where she can exhibit each video (each story) in a room, and visiters are expected to travel between the rooms so that they can create their own "rhizomatic" collage of the story. As always, Neshat invests a lot in the beholder as a dimension that completes and creates her work differently. I am waiting for the other films, but for 3 years now, we have not heard from Neshat...
This picture is a still from Zarin.