Remembering Iranian author and activist Shahrnush Parsipur (1946–2026)

We are deeply saddened to share that Iranian author and activist Shahrnush Parsipur (1946–2026) has passed away. We are honored to be the US publisher of three of Parsipur’s books, Women Without Men, Touba and the Meaning of Night, and Kissing the Sword.

Born in Iran in 1946, Shahrnush Parsipur began her career as a fiction writer and producer at National Iranian Radio and Television. After the 1979 revolution, Parsipur spent four and a half years in Iranian prison, incarcerated without charges. While incarcerated, she filled notebook after notebook, many of which were confiscated by prison guards, with observations that would later appear in her novels. Shortly after her release, she published Women Without Men and was arrested and jailed again, this time for her frank and defiant portrayal of women’s sexuality. The novel is still banned in Iran, but has become an underground bestseller there and has been translated into many languages around the world. Parsipur wrote numerous other books, including Blue Logos (Mazda Publishers), and she lived in exile in Northern California.

Women Without Men has sold over 30,000 copies in the US since its 2004 English-language release, and it was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in March of this year. Parsipur’s memoir Kissing the Sword, which captures the surreal experience of serving time as a prisoner under a fundamentalist power, will be reissued by the Feminist Press in June 2027.

Jeanne Thornton, editorial director of the Feminist Press, said, “Through her novels and stories, her memoirs, her work as a translator, and her literary activism, Shahrnush Parsipur lived a life wholly dedicated to cultivating the places where women’s experiences meet the mystical imagination and the political world. We’re honored she trusted us with bringing her writing into English, and we’re grateful she was able to see a whole new readership begin to discover the worlds she created.”

We hope you will join us in celebrating Shahrnush Parsipur’s incredible legacy by reading and sharing her work.