Women Without Men

The internationally acclaimed masterpiece from one of Iran's most influential writers - a powerful and essential tale of female freedom


Women Without Men traces the interwoven destinies of five women – including a wealthy middle-aged housewife, a sex worker and a schoolteacher – as they arrive by different paths to live together in an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.

Drawing on elements of Islamic mysticism and recent Iranian history, this unforgettable novel depicts women escaping the narrow confines of family and society, and imagines their future living in a world without men.

Translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh

Review

Parsipur's layered tales, glittering in a fresh translation, continue to beckon you into a world that is simultaneously scoured by reality, and touched with fable and myth ― 2026 International Booker Prize Judges

Women Without Men is the best feminist novel I know. It's thrilling, beautiful and hilarious, filled with weird women in transformation and the violent little men desperately trying to control them. I am convinced this novel is in fact a magic trick. Reading it feels like being invited to the rebellious unveiling of an age-old secret. It is both deeply mysterious and clear as water, filled to the brim with undeniable truth -- Johanne Lykke Holm

Parsipur is a courageous, talented woman, and above all, a great writer -- Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis

Gracefully brutal... Parsipur writes with the surface simplicity of a tale-teller. But she drops in prosaic, stinging touches of realism - of gossip, envy, suppressed thoughts and misunderstandings ― New York Review of Books

Using the techniques of both the fabulist and the polemicist, Parsipur continues her protest against traditional Persian gender relations in this charming, powerful novel ― Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Shahrnush Parsipur (Author)
Shahrnush Parsipur was born in Iran in 1946. She began her career as a writer of fiction and producer at Iranian National Television and Radio. She was imprisoned for nearly five years by the Islamist government without being formally charged. 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.
While still banned in Iran, the novel became an underground best-seller there, and has been translated into many languages around the world. She is also the author of Touba and the Meaning of Night, among many other books, and now lives in exile in Northern California.

Faridoun Farrokh (Translator)
Faridoun Farrokh was born and educated in Iran, where he began a teaching career. As an academic, his research has focused on eighteenth-century English literature, contemporary Iranian fiction, as well as literary translation. His English language translation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women Without Men was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.