Modern Iranian Women’s Literature : Writing across Borders and Genres

Offering analyses of women’s literary production in Iran as well as the Iranian diaspora, this book moves beyond the examination of writing as an act of resistance and explores what women writers have contributed to Iranian literature globally.

While Iranian women’s literature dates to the early modern period, it became more visible in the twentieth century. In the wake of the 1979 revolution, Iranian women’s literature flourished despite restrictions imposed upon women’s literary voices by a theocratic regime and a male-dominated field of production. The mass migrations after the revolution also gave rise to a sizeable community of Iranian women writers in diaspora, who like their counterparts in Iran, continue to explore new genres, forms of expression, and aesthetics.

Through analysis of the work of many modern and contemporary writers, this book highlights the innovative ways in which women writers in Iran and in the diaspora have engaged with social and cultural restrictions and have contributed to the creation of new literary idioms and forms.