Women Without Men:

Shirin Neshat and Sharnush Parsipur

Watching Shirin Neshats film adaptation of Iranian novelist Sharnush
Parsipurs novella Women Without Men was inspiring. Neshats eye-catching,
vivid imagery is beautiful. The films storyline surrounds the struggles faced
by four different discontent women living in Iran in 1953. Viewers are given
glimpses into the intimate lives and thoughts of the middle class virgins Munis
and Faezeh, the prostitute Zarin and the middle-aged, upper class generals
wife Farrokhlagha. Watching Neshats film inspired me to read Parsipurs
original novella. Even though Neshats film has a mystical quality in its
cinematography, Parsipurs use of Iranian mysticism and poetic writing style
create vivid images in readers minds in a different way. Upon starting the
novella I immediately noticed all the differences in the storylines, plot and
characters of the two works. I thoroughly enjoyed Neshats film, but enjoyed
Parsipurs novella even more. The novellas characters occasional extreme
actions, the plotline and Parsipurs beautiful writing have a power that the film
lacks. Class plays a large role in the novel and is clearly visible from the
beginning to the end. Those class differences are present in the film,
especially at the start, but almost completely fade out by the end. Neshats
film can be considered visually breathtaking and powerful, but it is still
outshined by Parsipurs beautifully written and enlightening novel.

Shahrnush Parsipur was born in Tehran, Iran in 1946. Her first

novel The Dog and the Long Winter was published in 1974. Some of the
common themes found in Parsipurs novels are virginity and problems
affecting women. Many of her novels have been influenced by Iranian history
and mysticism. Her preference to affirm the secret, hidden needs of the
human beings whose psyche they explore by using literary, instead of
scientific, languageprotaganists are on the borderline between normality
and transgression and in which political conflicts are represented through
personal conflicts that occur in a persons intimate sphere (Ansari 95) is clear
in many of her works. After the start of the Iranian Revolution in 1979s
Parsipurs novels were banned in Iran due to their controversial themes and
content. When her novella Women Without Men was published in 1989
Parsipur was imprisoned two separate times by the Iranian government for
her frank portrayal of womens sexuality and her protest against traditional
Islamic Iranian gender relations. After the Revolution of 1979 The states
Islamization of society and transformation of gender relations redefined
womens position in society, in family, at work, and in public life. The state
actively promoted gender segregation, and gender consequently became a
social determinant (Talattof 135). Talattof writes: Since the Revolution, the
number of women writers has increased dramatically. Their work, despite
great diversity in literary value, commonly manifests an awareness of
womens issues and gender relations (Talattof 139). Iranian female writers
such as Parsipur explore deep-rooted sexual norms such as virginity, which

is highly-value in their society, and to disclose the related physical abuse and
violence toward women. Their female protagonists tend to exemplify the
political nature of the self, care for their historical sisters, promote
womanhood, and express awareness of the political issues surrounding the
female body and sexuality (Talattof 141).
Parsipurs novella Women Without Men is set in Iran during a time of
turmoil amid the 1953 Iranian coup detat. Mohammad Mosaddegh was
democratically elected as the Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953. He was
overthrown in a coup detat organized by the United States Central
Intelligence Agency and The British Military Intelligence in 1953. In 1951
Mosaddegh, backed by Irans parliament, nationalized Irans oil industry
causing outrage by the British who had long had control over the countries oil.
Mosaddegh was replaced by Reza Shah Pahlavi, an authoritarian ruler, who
relied largely on the support of the United States government. The novella
focuses on the struggle of five women, each from different class and economic
backgrounds. The women struggle to live by the circumscribed boundaries of
their families and Iranian society and yearn to escape and experience
freedom. Though each of the women is facing her unique dilemma their
destinies are intertwined. Her interest to bring to light a womans secret,
hidden needs and to explore their personal conflicts is clear in Women
Without Men; readers are given a glimpse into each characters life and their
intimate thoughts and struggles are voiced.

The novella begins with the story of Mahdokht, a schoolteacher. She is

troubled by all the conflicts presented in life and even those present in nature.
She wished that everyone could get along, even the myriad greens of the
world (Parsipur 1). Mahdokht has no children on her own, but watches as her
brother Hoshang and his wife have five children over the course of ten years.
Its not clear why they have so many kids (Parsipur 4). She realizes that she
is overwhelmed by her compassion. If she saw an ant with a broken leg, she
would cry her eyes out. She had fed the starving dogs four times, and had
given her new overcoat to the school custodianIf only Mahdokht had a
thousand hands and could knit five hundred sweaters a week (Parsipur 5).
She is troubled by the fact that a person cannot have a thousand hands
(Parsipur 5) and therefore cannot knit sweaters for all the children. One day
when she is alone in the garden she stumbles upon Yadallah the gardener
having sex with Fatemeh, a fifteen-year-old girl in the greenhouse. She is
shocked and immediately disgusted by the sight and is unable to stop
trembling or looking until they see her watching. The girl stumbles out of the
greenhouse, with her chador inside out, and throws herself at Mahdokhts feet
begging Mahdokht in the name of God to not tell anyone. After the incident
she catches herself thinking that she hopes Fatemeh is pregnant so that she
will be killed. She exclaims: My virginity is like a tree...Maybe that is why I
am green (Parsipur 10). She decides that she must stay in the garden and
plant herself into the ground because she is a tree. If she became a tree, she

would sprout new leaves. She would be covered with new leaves. She would
give her new leaves to the wind, a garden full of Mahdokhts (Parsipur 11).
In the next chapter readers are introduced to Faizeh, a twenty eightyear-old virgin. She is plagued by insecurity and wishes to be noticed by her
friend Muniss brother Amir. Faizeh is always overly critical and judgmental;
she read somewhere that people with round faces are stupidShe had run to
look at herself and made sure that she could not be one of the stupid
peopleMunis had a round face. Very roundfor years Faizeh though Munis
was stupid (Parsipur 18). She is brought up to believe that virginity is a
narrow whole that becomes wide, but is shocked to hear her friend Munis who
is thirty-eight tell her that she was taught that virginity is a curtain that can be
torn.
Readers are next introduced to Munis. Munis thought about how for
thirty-eight years she had been looking out the window at the little garden,
assuming that virginity was a curtain. When she was eight years old, they had
told her that God would never forgive a girl who lost her virginity. Now it had
been three days and two nights since she found out that virginity was a hole,
not a curtain. Something inside of her had broken. She was filled with a cold
rage (Parsipur 29). Upon this realization Munis leaves and spends a month
wandering the streets as the country is in turmoil. Her family is shocked when
she returns home and Amir eventually stabs her to death with a fruit knife.
Unexpectedly, Faizeh arrives at the house looking for any news on Munis. She

is shocked to see Munis stabbed to death, but decides that what Amir did was
for the best because Munis had brought shame to her family. She then helps
him bury the body in the garden. Amir decides to marry an eighteen-year-old
shy, conservative girl in order to draw attention away from Munis. Faizeh is
distraught to find out that Amir isnt interested in her and decides to get a
talisman to bring him bad luck. She goes to bury the talisman in Amirs
garden, but freezes when she hears Muniss voice coming from the earth.
Faizeh dear! I cant breathe! (Parsipur 45). She begins to dig until she finds
Munis. Munis is angry at Faizeh for aiding in her murder and talking behind
her back. She tells her that she can read minds and scolds Faizeh for thinking
that she has a round face and calling her stupid. An angry Munis then
continues into her familys home, filled with wedding guests, and goes on to
humiliate Amir. The chapter ends with Faizeh and Munis escaping to Karaj.
Farrokhlaqa is the fifty-one year old wife of a retired general,
Golchehreh. She loathes her close-minded, tyrannical husband who
constantly mocks her. She wishes that she had married a more liberal man,
Fakhredin. One night she is surprised that Golchehreh is being kind to her,
suddenly suspicious she punches him the stomach propelling him down a
flight of stairs to his death. Three months later she realizes she cannot live in
the house anymore and sells it in order to move to a house with a garden in
Karaj.

Zarrinkolah is a twenty-six year old prostitute. She has lived in a brothel

since she was a child and has around thirty customers a day. She is well liked
by her customers and the other women for her cheerful attitude. One day
when her first customer of the day enters her room she realizes he has no
head. From that day on, all of the customers were headless (Parsipur 73).
She doesnt say a word to anymore for fear that they will think she is
possessed by a demon. Not long after, Zarrin decides to take time off of work
and go to a public bathhouse to cleanse herself. She has a bath worker scrub
her body until her skin is raw. Afterwards she begins to prostrate herself
while praying. She too decides to escape to Karaj.
Farroklaqa arrives at her new home and orchard in Karaj. She is quickly
inspired by the house and dreams of making new artistic friends and
establishing a literary salon. She is surprised when she is taken to the garden
and there is a human tree. The tree was of a woman of twenty-seven or
twenty-eight. She was buried knee-deep in the ground and clad in rags
(Parsipur 89). Farroklaqa soon realizes that the tree will make her famous and
decides to begin remodeling the house immediately. Soon she hears a knock
on the gate and is surprised to see a man and young women. She finds out that
he is a gardener and agrees to employ him to tend her garden. He introduces
her to Zarrin, who begs her to let her stay and work for her. Not long after
Munis and Faizeh arrive: It was sunset. The two girls were on the road to
Karaj. Each wore a chadorThey were both virgins (Parsipur 78). While
traveling to Karaj, Munis and Faizeh are raped by two truck drivers. When

asked what they want Munis replies: we decided to escape from the prison of
family life (Parsipur 95).
The women spend the upcoming months remodeling the house while
the gardener revitalized the garden. The gardener builds builds himself a
small home on the river bank, facing the tree of Mahdokht (Parsipur 102). It
is decided that he will tend to Mahdokht so that she will be filled with
blossoms by spring. Because she can only be fed with human milk he marries
Zarrin. She soon becomes pregnant: As she grew fatter, she changed color.
She was becoming transparent. Little by little it became possible to see right
through her (Parsipur 109). When Zarrin gives birth, she gives birth to a lily.
The gardener took the lily to the river. Earlier he had dug a small hole
thereThe gardener carefully placed the lily on the ice (Parsipur 116).
Mahdokht is fed Zarrins milk and begins to grow and then turns into seeds;
seeds that are blown throughout the world. Mahdokht and Zarrins
metamorphosis inspires Munis to turn into light. She spends seven years
traveling through deserts until she finally returns to the city and becomes
schoolteacher. Faizeh, still preoccupied by thoughts of Amir, returns to the
city to marry him. Farroklaqa becomes the muse of a painter and eventually
returns to the city and marries an old friend.
Shirin Neshat is visual artist primarily working with film and
photography. She was born in 1957 in Qazvin, Iran and left during the
Revolution of 1979 to study art in California. Her work generally involves

social, political and cultural problems and gender relations present in Muslim
societies. She first became involved with Shahrnush Parsipurs novels when
she created an installation titled Tooba, based on Parsipurs Touba and the
Meaning of Night. She became involved with Parispurs Women Without Men
when she created short narrative film installations based on the characters
Mahdokht (2004), Zarin (2005), Munis (2008) and Faezeh (2008). Her film
adaptation of the novella won her a best director award at the Venice Film
Festival in 2009. She said in an interview that just before September 11 she
had become rather obsessed with the subject of paradise (Zanganeh 49)
and had been thinking a lot about making a film about a garden (Zanganeh
49). She had been thinking about growing up in her familys garden in Iran,
which died after his death. Post September 11 she lost all her romanticism to
go back to Iran, but was filled with thoughts of paradise. Her preoccupation
with thoughts of paradise and gardens led her to Parsipurs Touba and the
Meaning of Night and then Women Without Men, which seemed like a natural
fit for the artist.
Neshats film adaptation of Women Without Men differs quite a bit from
the original novella. The film and novella are both visually appealing and
powerful in different ways; the film is beautiful and mystical visually while
Parsipurs influence from drawn Iranian mysticism, poetic writing and
descriptions create beautiful, powerful images in readers minds. There are
also clear character differences between the film and the novella; in the film
the women are attracted towards the garden in Karaj because of its magical

and beautiful qualities, but Mahdokht is completely excluded. Farrokhlagha

(Farroklaqa) does not murder her husband but instead she leaves him. Munis
is not murdered by Amir; she commits suicide and then becomes involved in
political protests. Faezeh (Faizeh) follows Munis to a coffeehouse and is raped
in an alleyway in the city by a man from the coffeehouse. When Zarin arrives
at the orchard in Karaj she is very ill. Farrokhlagha and Faezeh spent the
upcoming months attempting to nurse her back to health, but ultimately fail.
In the novella the class differences between each of the women is
obvious. From the beginning of the novella when each of the women has their
own separate life, to their journey to Karaj and finally to the end it is clear that
Farrokhlaqa comes from an upper class life, Munis and Faizeh from the middle
class and Zarrin from the lowest class. Even when the women live together in
the house with the orchard in Karaj, it is clear that Farrokhlaqa is from a
higher class life and holds that power over the other women; while
Farrokhlaqa spends her days lounging, writing poetry, giving orders and
entertaining guests, The gardener, Munis, Faizeh and Zarrin do all the labor
around the home and garden and revive Mahdokht the tree. Though there are
clear class distinctions between the women in the film those distinctions fade
by the end. When the film first introduces viewers to each of the women
separately it is clear to viewers what class each women belongs to, but the
film progresses those distinctions slowly fade; by the end when the women
have banded together in Karaj any differences between them fade and the
women become fairly equal to one-another.

It is expected for film adaptations to differ from the original written

works. In some cases these differences make the film unsuccessful compared
to their literary influences. Both Shirin Neshats film adaptation of Women
Without Men and Shahrnush Parsipurs original novella can be viewed as
successful works, but in different ways. Neshats film is visually entrancing
with a powerful storyline. Parsipurs novella carries deep meaning in its plot,
highlights each characters personal conflicts and is written beautifully and is
therefore more powerful. It is understandable that a film adaptation cannot
address all the struggles faced by characters in a literary piece, but when
important aspects from a novel are emitted and struggles not emphasized, the
film can be negatively affected.