“Over the past decade, Iran’s best-selling fiction lists have become dominated by women, an unprecedented development abetted by recent upheavals in Iranian society,” observes Nazila Fathi in a New York Times report. There are about as many women writing as men, says Fathi, “But the women’s books are outselling the men’s by far, thanks to simple – some critics say simplistic – language and compellingly personal narratives, often delving into once-taboo subjects like romance and sex. While the average Iranian novel is issued in print runs of 5,000 copies, some women’s books have enjoyed printings exceeding 100,000.”