SHAHRNUSH PARSIPUR, born in Iran in 1946, began her career as a fiction writer and a producer at Iranian National Television and Radio. Shortly after the publication of Women Without Men in 1989, Parsipur was arrested and jailed for her frank and defiant portrayal of women’s sexuality. While still banned in Iran the novel became a bestseller there, and has been translated into many languages around the world. Parsipur is also the author of Touba and the Meaning of Night, and now lives in exile in North California.
Joopaka Subhadra is an activist and Telugu writer who has published collections of poetry as well as of short stories and essays, introducing Dalit women’s concerns that have had a major impact o
Jasodhara Bagchi was an independent scholar, formerly Chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Women and Director, School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University; also Professor of English, Jad
Tamás Krausz is Professor of Russian History at the Eötvös Loránd Univesity of Sciences in Budapest, and Head of the Department of Eastern European Studies. One of the best-
Meera Kosambi, who has edited this volume, is a sociologist. Her several books include Crossing Thresholds: Feminist Essays in Social History (2007), and Women Writing Gender: Marathi Fiction Before I
Debi Chatterjee retired as Professor, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University. She is the founder-editor of the journal Contemporary Voice of Dalit.
