Women and Crafting the Self in Moniro Ravanipour’s Novels

Abstract

In the late 1980s, when feminist discourse became prevalent in Persian literature, a new generation of female writers appeared in Iran who used fiction, both short story and novel, as a literary vehicle to express their feelings and desires, and to criticize the gender gap and women’s social restrictions. Their writings thus offered a new outlook on how literature can shape the discourse of self-expression. As one of the most acclaimed female writers of postrevolutionary Iran, Moniro Ravanipour employs fiction, with autobiographical overtones, to express herself as a woman, a writer, and a native of the southern region of Iran. This article analyzes Ravanipour’s novels: Ahl-i Gharq (The drowned, 1989), Dil-i Fūlād (Heart of steel, 1990), and Kowlī Kinār-i Ātash (Gypsy by the fire, 1999) to highlight the representation of rural, urban, and tribal women—three types who have, albeit in different ways, adapted and changed both law and lifestyle to survive in an Iranian patriarchal society. It will also reveal the author’s concerns about femininity through analysis of her female protagonists, each of whom is an avatar of Ravanipour in the fictional world.