a public event

Sharnush Parsipur: How the People of the Past Live in Us (delivered in Persian)

This lecture is part of the Center's Persian Lecture Series.

Sunday, February 20, 2005
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
UCLA
Dodd Hall
Room 121
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Ms. Shahrnush Parsipur received her BA in Sociology from Tehran University in 1973. Her first novel, The Dog and the Long Winter, was published in 1974. She worked as a producer for Iranian National Television and Radio but resigned from her position in protest against the execution of two poets by the Shah?s regime. Shortly thereafter, she was arrested and imprisoned by SAVAK, the Shah's intelligence agency. After her release from prison she traveled to France where she completed her second book, The Simple and Small Adventures of the Spirit of the Tree (1977), an erotic novel that continues the story of a character in The Dog and the Long Winter.

Parsipur returned to Iran following the 1979 revolution. She was soon arrested and jailed by agents of the Islamic Republic and, although never officially charged with a crime, she remained in prison for four years and seven months ? an experience she has written about in her Prison Memoirs. While in prison, she wrote the first part of Touba and the Meaning of Night. Published in Iran in 1989, the novel became a national bestseller and has been translated into German, Italian and Swedish. The English translation is forthcoming in 2005. Parsipur endured further arrests and detentions for discussing virginity in her book Women without Men, also published in Iran in 1989. The English-language edition of this book was published by Feminist Press in 2004.

Parsipur fled Iran and now lives in the United States as a political refugee. She has published eight books of fiction as well as her Prison Memoirs. All of her works are currently banned in Iran.

Cost: Free and open to the public

Special Instructions

This lecture will be delivered in Persian.

For more information please contact

Steve Joudi
Tel: 310-825-1455
joudisa@international.ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies


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