Life goes on for the two of them--not ideally, but not too badly either.
― Women Without Men, Translated by Faridoun Farrokh
Women Without Men begins in Tehran in August 1953, a time of political turmoil. The purpose of the US and UK instigated a coup d'état led by the Iranian army was to overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of the shah. The government of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh had granted women the right to vote in municipal councils and equal rights with men in a new social insurance code, giving women maternity leaves and benefits and disability allowances. In return, women supported strongly Dr. Mosaddegh, but the 1953 coup put a stop to the gains that women were making[1]. Thus, the setting of Women Without Men is a time when women were losing political rights and autonomy after having recently making gains in those areas.
The story of magical realism is told in three parts. In the first we meet the five women Mahdokht, Fa'iza, Munis, Farrokhlaqa, and Zarrinkolah, learn of their lives, and discover why they end up in the village of Karadj on the outskirts of Tehran. The second part takes place in Karadj at the new home of Farrokhlaqa, a villa on the river with a large garden, where all the women gather along with Kind Gardener. Finally, there is a chapter for each of the women describing their lives after leaving Karadj.
Recently someone on BookTube differentiated between books that are plot driven versus character driven. This was another reminder of how little I know about literature since I hadn't known (or remembered) these terms and hadn't really thought about books in that way before. But it seems that the books I'm reading for Shorty September, a BookTube reading event, have so far been character driven, or at least, it is the characters I have been most interested in. So once again, I have created a list of characters below.
Some people have not enjoyed Women Without Men due to the magical realism in the story. Mahdokht values her virginity so much, she believes it is a tree, and so she plants herself in a garden and becomes a tree. Munis dies and comes back to life several times. Zarrinkolah is able to transcend to a new realm with the help of Kind Gardener. These magical events are not to everyone's taste, but I don't understand why. I was raised to believe that bread and wine became the body and blood of Christ at the 6 masses I went to each week, and so I am eager to understand the magical transformations that are part of the beliefs of other cultures. I also wonder if those that don't like the magical realism of literature from non-Western countries are some of the same people who like Western mythology and possibly the story of Ovid's Daphne who turned herself into a tree.
Others might have struggled with the names of people and places. I had to keep a list to keep track of these unfamiliar names, but I was willing to do this in order to understand what was happening. There are two translations of Shahrnush Parsipur, and the quotes above give a taste of the differences. I read the Faridoun Farrokh translation and I had heard that her English translation was more poetic than the first one and easier to read. I had no problem with the prose, but the two translations used different transliteration schemes for the character and place names. So if someone tries to read reviews or articles about the book, they'll find different Romanticized spellings of the names adding to the confusion.
Possible Wordplay
When looking into information about this book I went down a rabbit hole of trying to pronounce, translate, and find meaning of the Persian names and titles. So I wondered whether Parsipur intended the wordplay that I stumbled onto or if I was reading into my discoveries more than what was intended. Regardless, here are some of the things I found.
The transliteration of the original Persian title of the book is Zanan bedun mardan, which is written as
زنان بدون مردان
in Persian. If I translate these Persian words to English, we get Women Without Men, as expected, but Google translate cannot translate the Romanticized "zanan bedun mardan" from Persian to English. So I tried translating it from Arabic to English, and got "It's too late," which is something a dead man on the street says to Munis. When I translated the Persian characters for "zanan bedun mardan" from Arabic to English it was "adultery without mardan."
Another example of possible wordplay is in the name of the village where Fa'iza and Munis head to after Amir Khan's wedding, Karadj. In 1953, Karadj was a small village near Tehran and is the setting of the opening scene where Mahdokht is lounging near the pool in the garden. However, Urban Dictionary says that "karadj" is a slang for a "local common whore."
The names of the characters seems to be chosen to give meaning, as far as I can tell. According to Babynology, a dubious source, Mahdokht means "Daughter of the Moon," but the Google translation is "kindergarten," which is interesting since this character is a teacher of children in the book. Fa'iza means "victorious," per HamariWeb, and while I didn't care for Fa'iza as a character, I was pleased that she was finally victorious.
HamariWeb says that Munis is a man's name meaning "companion," and another baby name website adds consoler to the meaning. Fa'iza uses Munis as a confidante when Fa'iza is trying to spread rumors about her sister-in-law and they become travel companions. I wonder if Parsipur purposefully chose the name for Munis knowing that it translates to "mons" in English since Munis starts out knowing little of women's anatomy or of sexuality.
Characters, in order of appearance
Mahdokht - Parsipur modeled part of Mahdokht's personality after a cousin, a very shy and god-fearing woman. In the book, we learn that Mahdokht was a teacher and vice-principal until the principal, Mr. Ehteshami, asked her out on a date. She didn't go, but she couldn't handle the forwardness, so she left her job to protect her virginity and her reputation.
It is not clear whether Mahdokht enjoys being around children, while she was a teacher she also complains about her nieces and nephews and how noisy they are. However, she wants to have 1000 arms so that she can knit enough sweaters for the orphans of Iran. This image is consistent with how she pictures her virginity, when she says is like a tree.
Mr. Ehteshami - Principal of Mahdokht's school and marries Miss Atai, the history and geography teacher.
Houshang Kang - Kang is Mahdokht's older brother, is father to five noisy children, and owns a house on the outskirts of Tehran with a lovely garden, pool, and orchard.
Fati - 15-year-old servant for Houshang Kang
Yadollah - Houshang Kang's gardener
Fa'iza - The author had another cousin in mind when writing Fa'iza's story, a cousin who was a good girl but turned out to be spiteful and vindictive. Fa'iza is 28 years old and not yet married. Her brother is married to Parveen. She is in love with Amir Khan, and guards her virginity carefully to continue to be chaste for him. However, he makes her nervous.
With him around, she wouldn't be able to say what she wanted, or say anything at all. She would have to hold back and endlessly revise what she wanted to say.
However, Fa'iza once sees Amir Khan distraught and in need of consolation, and she becomes brave and tells him it it is time to be married.
Amir Khan - Sister of Munis, love object of Fa'iza, believes women belong only in the home, not in the outside world. He mistakes modest public behavior for chastity and marries a woman who has already had an abortion.
Nana Jan - Grandmother of Fa'iza.
Alia - A servant in Amir Khan and Munis's household. It is hinted that wanders along the rooftops of the city in the summer. She joins up with Fa'iza to try to find a way to ruin Amir Khan's marriage.
Munis - Friend is a 38-year-old friend of Fa'iza and Amir Khan's brother. Parsipur modeled the character of Munis after bits of herself and an aunt, who had divorced her husband, got a job in government, and was very lonely.
Munis missed out on childhood fun such climbing trees, because she was afraid of accidentally losing her virginity. The first time Munis dies, she wanders the streets and finds a book at a street vendor's that explains female sexuality. After a month, she returns home to be killed once more and buried in the backyard.
Parveen - Fa'iza and her sister-in-law, Parveen, are trying to one-up each other at high social events. As an insult, Parveen has nicknamed her sister-in-law Foozy.
Mrs. Farrokhlaqa Sadroddin Golchehreh (Farrokh, Fakhur) - Farrokhlaqa is 51 years old and is married to Golchehreh, a wealthy man. Their children have grown and have families of their own, and Golchehreh has retired, so the couple live alone. While Golchehreh still finds Farrokh attractive, her past affair with Fakhroddin Azod has soured their relationship, and Farrok finds life with Golchehreh stifling.
Farrokhlaqa inherits her husband's money after his accidental death and moves to Karadj to buy the villa where Mahdokht has planted herself in the garden. She hopes to improve her social status and possibly become a poet or a member of parliament.
Sadroddin Golchehreh (Sadri) - Farrokhlaqa's husband.
Fakhroddin Azod - A family friend of Farrokhlaqa's, married to a woman from the U.S. and has two sons, Teddy and Jimmy. Farrokh has an affair with Fakhroddin for eight years before he returned to the U.S. and dies in a car accident.
The Prince - A descendant of a royal family who hosts parties attended by Golchehreh, Farrokhlaqa, and others in their social sphere.
Mosayeb - The Golchehreh's manservant.
Adeleh Raf'at - a confidante of Farrokh's
Farrokhlaqa (Faroklaka) - A Polish woman Golchehreh had an affair with in Paris during WWII.
Mr. Ostovary - A real estate agent in Karadj.
Zarrinkolah (Zarry) - Since puberty Zarrinkolah has worked as a prostitute. She is very funny, and makes the other prostitutes laugh. One day her customers all appear to her without any heads. This goes on for awhile until another girl tells Zarry that she should pray. After asking for a two-day leave, Zarry goes to a bathhouse to get clean so that she can pray at a shrine. Instead of praying, she heads to Karadj because it is a place where there is fresh air.
Golden Akram (Akram the Seven) - the madam at the brothel where Zarrinkolah works.
Kind Gardener - a very talented gardener who shows up at Farrokh's villa at just the right time.
Notes
I used several websites to convert Romanticized Persian to the Persian alphabet, check that conversion, and convert from Arabic and Persian to English.
- If you type a Romanticized phrase from Persian or Arabic, Google Translate will offer a phrase in the Persian or Arabic alphabets for you.
- Farsi to Latin Converter will take a phrase in the Persian alphabet and provide a Romanticized transliteration. I used this to check that the Persian phrases offered by Google Translate had the same pronunciation as the Romanticized phrase I was trying to translate.
- To get the pronunciation of Persian phrases written in the Persian alphabet, I used Narakeet.
References
[1] Iranian Women and the Struggle for Democracy I by Muhammad Sahimi, Frontline, PBS, April 15, 2010.
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