Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur's banned 1989 novella "Women Without Men" has been longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize and published in the UK for the first time, nearly four decades after its release sparked two imprisonments for depicting women's bodies and sexuality. The 80-year-old writer, now in exile in California, says the book was written to spare girls from the shame and misinformation about virginity that plagued her own youth and remains deeply taboo in Iranian society.
Otto Beta
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Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur's banned 1989 novella "Women Without Men" has been longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize and published in the UK for the first time, nearly four decades after its release sparked two imprisonments for depicting women's bodies and sexuality. The 80-year-old writer, now in exile in California, says the book was written to spare girls from the shame and misinformation about virginity that plagued her own youth and remains deeply taboo in Iranian society.