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Event Details:
Event will be in English and Persian (without simultaneous translation).
Please join us for a memorial event celebrating the life of acclaimed Iranian writer Shahrnush Parsipur with in person and virtual presentations in English and Persian. The event will be both in person and livestreamed on Zoom. Limited seating is available in person, and once the registration is full all additional attendees will be directed to join the Zoom webinar.
In person and virtual speakers include Shirin Neshat, Abbas Milani, Farzaneh Milani, Mojdeh Shamsaie, Maryam Zandi, and Mandana Zandian.
Register for in person attendance
Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was born in Tehran, Iran in 1946 and started her literary career when she was just 16, writing short stories and articles. She wrote her first novel, The Dog and the Long Winter, at 28. That same year, she was imprisoned for several months after protesting the execution of two journalist-poet activists. She left Iran to study Chinese philosophy and language in France. There, she wrote her second novel, The Plain and Small Adventures of the Spirit of the Tree in 1977.
Due to the problems associated with the Islamic Revolution in 1979, she could not complete her education in France, and had to return to Iran. As a result of a misunderstanding, she was imprisoned in the Islamic Republic of Iran's political prison for four and a half years. She later wrote a memoir recalling her time in prison—translated as Kissing the Sword. As soon as she was released from jail, she published her novel Touba and the Meaning of Night in 1989. In 1990 she wrote Women Without Men, a collection of short stories. As a result of openly referring to the subject of virginity in the collection, she ended up in prison again on two separate occasions.
Her work inspired the art of many world class artists and her collaboration with Shirin Neshat led to the prize winning film based on her novel Women without Men in 2009. The film was awarded the Silver Lion of the Venice Film Festival. Ms. Neshat also created a film project based on Touba and the Meaning of Night (2002).
Ms. Parsipur was awarded the Premio Feronia literary prize; the Statue of Arash from the Tirgan Festival; the Hellman-Hammett grant twice; the honorary tablet of Cyrus the Great from the Encyclopedia Iranica Foundation; and the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Brown University in Providence, RI, and was recently nominated for the Booker International Prize. Her books have been translated into several languages. She has also written more than 400 articles about modern Iranian literature in different literary publications.
About the Speakers
Farzaneh Milani is Raymond J. Nelson Professor Emerita of Iranian literature and Gender Studies at the University of Virginia.
Shirin Neshat is an award-winning Iranian-born artist and filmmaker living in New York. Neshat works and continues to experiment with the mediums of photography, video, film, and opera. Neshat has directed three feature-length films, including Women Without Men (2009) based on Shahrnush Parsipur’s book, which received the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the 66th Venice International Film Festival.
Mojdeh Shamsaie is an Iranian actress, theater practitioner, and multidisciplinary artist. A Crystal Simorgh Award winner, she has long collaborated with Bahram Beyzaie and has co-led acting workshops at Stanford University since 2014.
Maryam Zandi is an award-winning photographer. In 1972, she joined Iranian national TV-Radio as a photographer and later became Iranian Television and Tamasha magazine’s public relations photographer until 1983. Over the course of 35 years she created a unique and extensive photo archive of famous and influential contemporary Iranian elites in the fields of literature, visual arts, cinema, theater, architecture, music, and politics, known as “Chehreh-ha” (Portraits).
Mandana Zandian spent two decades as a cancer researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Zandian is also a published poet and author whose work primarily documents the lives and contributions of Iranian cultural figures in exile. Her latest book, Morgh-e Aftab (The Sunbird), revisits the founding and the first thirteen years of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. She also hosts and produces the Persian literature podcast A Window of Freedom.
Stanford is committed to ensuring its facilities, programs and services are accessible to everyone. To request access information and/or accommodations for this event, please complete https://tinyurl.com/AccessStanford at the latest one week before the event.