Women’s self-consciousness began with the question about their own identity, a question invariably followed by another question about the identity of men. Traditionally, the Iranian woman had an answer to this question, an answer she had inherited from previous generations: men were the pillars of the family, domineering, owner of the wife; the man wielded the economic power, exercised force, made the important decisions and subdued the wife. In the transition of the society from traditional to modern, however, the positions of men and women have changed in each others’ eyes. The woman today has a different view of men stemming from the cultural changes happening in the last two decades in Iran. This change of view may be observed in the fiction produced in the last two decades. It is now possible to trace the change in Iranian women’s attitude toward men through an exact examination of the textual and intertextual relationships found in the modern fiction written by women. In this study, the writer, drawing on more than 20 novels and a good number of short stories, concludes that the typical Iranian woman finds the typical Iranian man as having two contradictory personalities, being disloyal, undependable and pleasure-seeking, seeking self-interest and having no understanding of the woman’s needs and emotions. As a result of this new attitude, women look at men as rivals, if not enemies, do not trust them, sue them and appropriate their properties. This new attitude, as reflected in the modern fiction written by women writers, has been institutionalized, resulting in a new definition of men and of the relationship between men and women.

Women’s self-consciousness began with the question about their own identity, a question invariably followed by another question about the identity of men. Traditionally, the Iranian woman had an answer to this question, an answer she had inherited from previous generations: men were the pillars of the family, domineering, owner of the wife; the man wielded the economic power, exercised force, made the important decisions and subdued the wife. In the transition of the society from traditional to modern, however, the positions of men and women have changed in each others’ eyes. The woman today has a different view of men stemming from the cultural changes happening in the last two decades in Iran. This change of view may be observed in the fiction produced in the last two decades. It is now possible to trace the change in Iranian women’s attitude toward men through an exact examination of the textual and intertextual relationships found in the modern fiction written by women. In this study, the writer, drawing on more than 20 novels and a good number of short stories, concludes that the typical Iranian woman finds the typical Iranian man as having two contradictory personalities, being disloyal, undependable and pleasure-seeking, seeking self-interest and having no understanding of the woman’s needs and emotions. As a result of this new attitude, women look at men as rivals, if not enemies, do not trust them, sue them and appropriate their properties. This new attitude, as reflected in the modern fiction written by women writers, has been institutionalized, resulting in a new definition of men and of the relationship between men and women.

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