3.0 out of 5 stars
Worthwhile, December 3, 2009
This review is from: In a Voice of Their Own: A Collection of Stories by Iranian Women Written Since the Revolution of 1979 (Bibliotheca Iranica: Persian Fiction in Translation Series) (Paperback)
This book was published in 1996 and contained 18 short stories by 13 writers who were women.
The oldest authors in this anthology were the five who began their careers before the revolution: Goli Taraghi (1939-), Shokooh Mirzadegi (1944-), Mehri Yalfani (ca.1945-), Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-) and Mihan Bahrami (1947-). The youngest were Tehereh Alavi (1959-), Soudabeh Ashrafi (1959-), Fariba Vafi (1962-) and Roya Shapurian (1966-). Others included Moniru Ravanipur (1954-) and Farkhondeh Aghai (1956-). Writers like Simin Daneshvar and Mahshid Amir-Shahi were omitted because several English-language collections of their work were already available, and the author Ghazaleh Alizadeh was omitted because the editors could find no short stories by her for the period.
The stories in this anthology had been published originally in Persian-language journals in Iran, North America and Europe. All but three were from the 1990s: one story by Ravanipur was published in 1989, one by Parsipur came out two years before the 1979 revolution -- notwithstanding the title of this collection -- and one by Bahrami was first published in 1968.
At the time their works in this collection first came out, the authors were living in Iran, except for Mirzadegi, Yalfani and Ashrafi, who'd left for England, Canada and the United States. It appears that most of the others still live in Iran, except for Taraghi, Parsipur and Ravanipur, who've gone abroad in the years since this anthology was published.
Most of the stories focused on relationships within the family -- husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters - or without, between unrelated men and women. A few dealt deeply with women -- grandmothers, children, a girl, a prospective bride -- reflecting on their inner lives (Taraghi, Barami, Parsipur, Shapurian) or dealing with a crisis like a mother's death (Aghai); these impressed me the most. A few touched on other subjects like the exploitation of female workers (Ashrafi) and brutality in a women's prison (Fariba Vafi). Others dealt with the dislocation of exile (Mirzadegi, Makhameh Rahimzadeh). One appeared to describe a confrontation between leftists and religious marchers around the time of the 1979 revolution (Shahla Shafik). Most of the works were realistic, though one story by Parsipur moved into magical realism, with a woman entering the body and mind of her lover. Rare humor was provided in a story by Yalfani, in which two strong wives plotted to find a wife for their helpless, newly widowed brother.
In addition to the stories, there was an introduction providing some background on writing in Iran, a list of prose works translated into English, a list of studies of women's writing in Iran and the Middle East. The introduction discussed briefly the origins of modern Persian literature in the late 1800s, through the publications of Zayn al-Abedin Maraghehi and Mirza Habib-e Esfahani, and from the 1920s to 40s through the work of writers like Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, Sadegh Hedayat, Bozorg Alavi, Beh-Azin, Sadegh Chubak and Jalal Al-e Ahmad. Milestones in writing by women were -- in nonfiction -- the publication in 1894 of The Vices of Men by Bibi Khanom Astarabadi, which called for greater understanding of the condition of women in the patriarchal society of the time, and the memoirs of Taj al-Saltaneh, the daughter of a former ruler, written ca. 1924 but not published in full until 1982.
In prose fiction by women, the introduction cited works such as "Gowhar" (1945), a short story by Zahra Khanlari, described as the first fiction by an Iranian woman to appear in a major literary journal; the short-story collection by Simin Daneshvar, Fire Quenched (1947), published in 1947; and Daneshvar's novel Savushun (1969), called the first novel published in Iran by a woman. Also mentioned were poets from earlier centuries as well as poets from the 20th century such as Parvin Etesami (1907-41) and Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-67).
Other relatively easy-to-find collections of writing by women are Stories by Iranian Women since the Revolution (1991), covering mainly the 1980s; A Walnut Sapling on Masih's Grave and Other Stories by Iranian Women (1993), which covered mainly the 1960s to 80s; and A Feast in the Mirror: Stories by Contemporary Iranian Women (2000), which covered the 1980s and 90s.
Larger, more comprehensive collections include Stories from Iran: A Chicago Anthology 1921-1991 (1992) and Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature (2005).
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