Glimpses of Daily Life: Short Stories by Iranian Women: A Window to the Past and the Future: “Fenjan-e shekasteh” (The Broken Cup)

Extract

Simin Behbahani (B. 1927) is by far the most prominent woman poet of the last two decades. Her recent works manifest a sensitivity to feminist themes and adhere to a new notion of literary endeavor and a new ideology of representation that promote women's causes and gender equality. Her short story “Fenjan-e Shekasteh” (The Broken Cup), for example, brings to the fore the theme of love and man-woman relationships, thereby manifesting the author's new ideological orientation. The story offers these themes in the context of the history of intellectual activities in Iran, by virtue of which it gains additional significance.

The story portrays a woman who, as was common among intellectuals in the decades prior to the 1979 revolution, devotes her life to the political movement for freedom and sacrifices everything, including her love, in its path.