Abstract
Contemporary Iranian women writers contribute to the Iranian literary tradition by writing about women’s roles during the political upheavals leading up to and after the 1979 Revolution. In Simin Daneshvar’s Savushun and Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women without Men, the authors meticulously employ colloquial sexist diction to expose the connection between sexism and violence against women. The portrayal of such violence relies on language that illustrates the authors’ concerns and their commentary on the status of women. In this situation, literary criticism of the novels demands an approach that discusses feminism, language, and translation as interrelated. This article analyzes issues introduced in the translation of Savushun and Women without Men where translation choices have an impact on important elements of the original novels. By revealing how translation can minimize important culturally bound elements of Daneshvar’s and Parsipur’s feminist awareness and agency, it provides an example with relevance for critical translation studies.
