Born and raised in Tehran, Parsipur received her B.A. in sociology from Tehran University in 1973 and studied Chinese language and civilization at the Sorbonne from 1976 to 1980. Her first book was Tupak-e Qermez, a story for young people. Her first short stories were published in the late 1960s. One early story appeared in Jong-e Isfahan, no. 9, a special short-story issue which also featured stories by Esma'il Fasih, Houshang Golshiri, Taqi Modarresi, Bahram Sadeghi, and Gholam Hossein Saedi. Her novella Tajrobeha-ye Azad was followed by the novelSag va Zemestan-e Boland, published in 1976. In 1977, she published a volume of short stories called Avizeh'ha-ye Bolur. As of the late 1980s, Parsipur received considerable attention in Tehran literary circles, with the publication of several of her stories and several notices and a lengthy interview with her in Donya-ye Sokhan magazine. Her second novel was Touba va ma'na-ye Shab, which Parsipur wrote after spending four years and seven months in prison. Right before her incarceration, in 1990, she published a short novel, in the form of connected stories, called Zanan bedun-e Mardan, which Parsipur had finished in the late 1970s. The first chapter appeared in Alefba, no. 5. The Iranian government banned Women without Men in the mid-1990s and put pressure on the author to desist from such writing. Early in 1990, Parsipur finished her fourth novel, a 450-page story of a female Don Quixote called Aql-e abirang, which remained unavailable as of early 1992. In 1994 she went to the United State and wrote Prison Memoire, a 450 pages of her memoire of four different times that she was in different prisons. In 1996 she wrote her fifth novel Shiva, a science fiction in 900 pages. In 1999 she published her sixth novel, Majaraha-ye Sadeh va Kuchak-e Ruh-e Deraxt, in 300 pages. In 2002, she published her seventh novel, Bar Bal-e Bad Neshastan, in 700 pages. Since 2006, she has been making various programs for Radio Zamaneh based in Amsterdam. Parsipur was recipient of the prestigious Hellmann Hammett Award for Human Rights in 1994 and was honored in 2003 at the Encyclopaedia Iranica Gala in Miami, for her lifelong achievements as a novelist and literary figure, the first recipient of the International Writers Project Fellowship from the Program in Creative Writing and the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University for 2003-2004, and she received an honorary doctorate from Brown University in 2010. She was married to the Iranian film director Nasser Taghvai, but the marriage ended in divorce after seven years. They have a son together.
Laotse and the Taoist Master, By Max Kaltenmark — From French لائوتزه و مرشدان دائوئی نوشته ماکس کالتنمارک، ترجمه از فرانسه
Tanius' Cliff, By Amin Ma'luf — From French صخره تانیوس نوشته امین مالوف، ترجمه از فرانسه ٌ
Witch Hunting, By Shirly Jackson — From English شکار جادوگران شرلی جاکسون، ترجمه از زبان انگلیسی
History of China - From Opium Wars till Cultural Revolution 4 Volumes, From French تاریخ چین، از جنگ های تریاک تا انقلاب فرهنگی، چهار جلد ترجمه از فرانسه
China History for Young People, - From French تاریخ چین برای نو جوانان، ترجمه از فرانسه
Parapsychology, from the series of What I know, From French پیراروانشناسی از سری چه می دانم، ترجمه از فرانسه
Travel to the West, By Wu Chengnen, translated from French سیر باختر، رمان، نوشته ووچنگ نن، ترجمه از فرانسه ُ
Spanking the Maid, By Robert Coover مستخدمه کتک خور، نوشته رابرت کوورو ترجمه از انگلیسی
Un Unquiet Mind, By Key Redfield Jamison — From English ذهن بی قرار، نوشته کای ردفیلد جامیسون، ترجمه از انگلیسی
Mythology, By the group of Professors of different Universities اساطیر جهان، نوشته گروه دانشمندان اسطوره شناس دانشگاه های مختلف دنیا ترجمه از انگلیسی
