Behnaz Alipour Gaskari

Alive and Kicking Behnaz Alipour Gaskari

Alive and Kicking This collection of twenty short stories by ten leading Iranian women writers introduces many of them to English-speaking audiences for the first time. These are successful authors whose books are widely read and appreciated by Iranian readers. Some have won awards and many of their books have been reprinted multiple times. These writers live in different parts of the Islamic Republic of Iran and work in a wide range of professions. They write under difficult circumstances since all their works are scrutinised by the Ministry of Guidance before permission to publish is granted, often after substantial rewriting, cutting and editing. Getting published thus requires a great deal of energy and persistence, making the authors' efforts to keep Iranian culture alive even more admirable. The stories range over the recent past and the present and explore themes such as love and its ending, desire, friendship, the strains and frustrations of family life, the challenges of the workplace. Some are highly realistic while others are fantastic and surreal. The female characters in the stories are often strong and independent, sometimes angry and rebellious. In this way the collection provides a series of portraits of women's lives in modern-day Iran.