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. ‎