Stephen Mcewen

Simin Daneshvar, Persia’s first female novelist and hope for Iran’s future

There is a Persian proverb which states that ‘books are a man’s best friend.’ Persian literature from the kings of antiquity to the last Shah of the Peacock Throne has, for the most part, been dominated by its proverbial male companion. When presented with today’s Islamic Republic, an unfamiliar Western reader can easily believe that a female literary voice cannot possibly exist underneath the seemingly anonymising chador, the Islamic female dress most closely associated with Iran. Instead, all that would appear to emanate from Iran is a male voice: Ahmadinejad defending arms programs; the Mullahs dictating morality; Khomeini, father of the nation, ever-present from beyond the grave, still influencing the country he theologically revolutionised thirty-three years ago this winter.

Few can claim to be the first novelist of any given language, culture and gender, yet when Simin Daneshvar died earlier this year, her obituaries teemed with praise emphasising her status as the first published female novelist of the Iranian canon.

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