Abstract
In a culture where women are secluded behind the veil, their words as an extension of themselves are not supposed to be heard. It is not surprising, therefore, that throughout the history of Persian literature only a few women could display their literary creativity.
The Qajar princess, Taj os-Saltaneh, completed her memoir in 1914. It is one of the oldest book-length prose writings written by a woman. Its prose style which plausively modeled itself on Western novels, the criticism on existing political and social situations including the problems of women and the tension between author's Westernized idealism and the conventional society, proved this memoir to be the forerunner of women's prose literature.
It was not until 1948 that the first woman writer, Simin Daneshvar, appeared in Iran. She gained the critical recognition by Savushun (1969), a best seller for two decades. In her fictive world, the element of “literary commitment” not playing an integral part, the experience of an ordinary woman is portrayed in a vivid and moderate way.
Shahrnush Parsipur's Tuba and the Meaning of Night (1989) is one of the most important novels after the Islamic Revolution. This novel has dual structure; one is the story of an Iranian woman lived between two Revolutions, and the other is a unique explanation of the history of human beings. By the latter, the author seems to show the matriarchal world that lies underneath the male-centered society.
Women writers have been making their effort to find their place in Iranian culture which is, as a critic put it, “made by men for men”.
