Zan
Stories
In prose that is both unflinching and lyrical, Suzi Ehtesham-Zadeh presents Zan, a collection of stories that provide a deep and nuanced view of contemporary Iranian women as they navigate a crucial moment in their nation’s history.
A university student strips off her hijab in the streets of Tehran and films herself as part of a daring protest movement. A wealthy Iranian woman living in Atlanta maintains a secret life as a burlesque dancer. A teenager slips out of a hotel room at night to skinny dip in the toxic Caspian Sea. An Iranian lesbian agonises over her coming out and her father’s subsequent attempts to re-educate her. These are some of the many windows Zan opens into the complex lives of Iranian women today – those who continue to suffer oppression under the Islamic Republic, those who are crafting new identities in America, and those who hover somewhere in between.
Against the backdrops of the Islamic Republic and the American empire, these women grapple with the rigid standards foisted upon them and struggle to forge meaningful relationships with people who misunderstand and otherise them. Winner of the 2022 Dzanc Short Collection Prize, Zan explores feelings familiar to anyone who has ever felt marginalised or who has sought a home in a world where cultures collide and conflict.
Suzi Ehtesham-Zadeh was born in Washington, D.C. to an Iranian father and an American mother. She moved to Iran at age 5 and grew up in Tehran under the Shah. She returned to the U.S. to attend Stanford University, and when the Islamic Revolution started brewing shortly after she graduated, she moved back to Iran and plopped herself down in it. She later received an MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University. A lifelong English teacher, she has taught in schools and universities on three continents, but her permanent home is a 6-acre farm in Woodstock, GA. Her fiction has been published in numerous publications, including The Georgia Review, Gertrude Press, and Fiction International, and she received an honorable mention for The Best American Short Stories 2018.
