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Women Without Men
  • Published: 23 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241792513
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

Women Without Men

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
23 June 2026
EBook
12 Mar 2026
Audiobook
12 Mar 2026
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A powerful and essential tale of female freedom

This internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of Iran’s most important and influential writers 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 recent Iranian history and transcendent elements of Islamic mysticism, Parsipur’s unforgettable novel sees women escaping strict confines of family and society. It is still as pertinent and discerning today as it was when travelling secretly from hand to hand upon its first publication in 1989.
  • Published: 23 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241792513
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

About the author

Shahrnush Parsipur

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.
SP

Praise for Women Without Men

Parsipur is a courageous, talented woman, and above all, a great writer

Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis

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

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

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'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