Ecofeministic Reading of “Women without Men”

Blending environmental movements with third-wave feminism formedecofeminism, which tied up the aims of the two movements. Ecofeminismtries to trace the relationship between women and nature, either from anessentialist approach or from a structuralist viewpoint, back to the age ofmythology. Women and their related affairs play an important role inShahrnoush Parsipour’s stories. Furthermore, in “Women without Men”,thoughts and lives of female characters of the story are tied to nature, especiallyto trees. Its climax is where the women of the story, in a traditional-mindedsociety, take initial steps to liberate themselves from any domination, becomeconscious, and enter society. Employing a descriptive-analytic approach, thisstudy sought to understand men/women relationships, on the one hand, andwomen/nature relation, on the other hand. The results show that womenbecome aware of their own femininity, their own body, and their society byescaping the domination of patriarchal culture. But it is not mean completefreedom from men. Their instinctive inclination to procreation returns themto men. Although a few female characters who are not optimistic about men,take different way which is joining nature and virgin birth; this is a way whichrelates them to pristine nature and sacred mothers throughout history andmythology. In this story, inappropriate relations of authoritarian men towomen and nature could be seen at the same time.