Shahrnush Parsipur: In Memoriam

Stanford, California

About

Event will be in English and Persian (without simultaneous translation).

Please join us for a memorial event celebrating the life of acclaimed Iranian writer Shahrnush Parsipur with in person and virtual presentations in English and Persian. The event will be both in person and livestreamed on Zoom. Limited seating is available in person, and once the registration is full all additional attendees will be directed to join the Zoom webinar.

In person and virtual speakers include Shirin Neshat, Abbas Milani, Farzaneh Milani, Mojdeh Shamsaie, Maryam Zandi, and Mandana Zandian.

Shahrnush Parsipur

Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was born in Tehran, Iran in 1946 and started her literary career when she was just 16, writing short stories and articles. She wrote her first novel, The Dog and the Long Winter, at 28. That same year, she was imprisoned for several months after protesting the execution of two journalist-poet activists. She left Iran to study Chinese philosophy and language in France. There, she wrote her second novel, The Plain and Small Adventures of the Spirit of the Tree in 1977.

Due to the problems associated with the Islamic Revolution in 1979, she could not complete her education in France, and had to return to Iran. As a result of a misunderstanding, she was imprisoned in the Islamic Republic of Iran's political prison for four and a half years. She later wrote a memoir recalling her time in prison—translated as Kissing the Sword. As soon as she was released from jail, she published her novel Touba and the Meaning of Night in 1989. In 1990 she wrote Women Without Men, a collection of short stories. As a result of openly referring to the subject of virginity in the collection, she ended up in prison again on two separate occasions.

Her work inspired the art of many world class artists and her collaboration with Shirin Neshat led to the prize winning film based on her novel Women without Men in 2009. The film was awarded the Silver Lion of the Venice Film Festival. Ms. Neshat also created a film project based on Touba and the Meaning of Night (2002).

Ms. Parsipur was awarded the Premio Feronia literary prize; the Statue of Arash from the Tirgan Festival; the Hellman-Hammett grant twice; the honorary tablet of Cyrus the Great from the Encyclopedia Iranica Foundation; and the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Brown University in Providence, RI, and was recently nominated for the Booker International Prize. Her books have been translated into several languages. She has also written more than 400 articles about modern Iranian literature in different literary publications.

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