Born in Iran in 1946, Shahrnush Parsipur began her career as a fiction writer and producer at Iranian National Television and Radio. She was imprisoned for nearly five years by the religious government without being formally charged. Shortly after her release, she published Women Without Men. While still banned in Iran, the novel became an underground bestseller there. Parsipur is also the author of Touba and the Meaning of Night and Kissing The Sword: A Prison Memoir (forthcoming from Feminist Press), among many other books, and now lives in exile in Northern California.
Shahrnush Parsipur
Articles by Shahrnush Parsipur
Thursday April 18
from Kissing the Sword
“Don’t you all constantly claim that you’re opposed to America? Then why has news of the shuttle exploding upset you so much?” She looked at me wide-eyed and said, “But this is science. It is humankind’s knowledge. It belongs to everyone.”