Where Voices Braid
A Feminist Poetics of Embodiment and Experience
This interview explores Bindless Epic through the lens of feminist poetics, exile, and postmodern form. The poet reflects on non-linear narratives, multilingual voice, and the philosophy of écriture féminine, drawing from thinkers like Cixous, Kristeva, and Derrida. Set in a decaying city where women are erased, the poems resist fixed meaning through embodied language, grotesque imagery, and polyphonic structure. “Borderlessness” emerges as both a condition of exile and a poetic strategy—where voice, memory, and desire defy containment. This conversation was first published in the cultural-literary monthly magazine Sokhan, Year 10 / Issue 100 / February 2025.
About A Head Full of Sounds / Tehran. Sibe Sorkh Publishing. First Edition, 2019
This collection is structured in three sections, using a vivid and metaphorical language to depict the multifaceted aspects of womanhood in a cohesive and multilayered manner.
The first section, which serves as the introduction, presents an autobiographical narrative that honestly and delicately portrays the complexities and contradictions of romantic relationships in the modern world. This section opens with the imagery of driving, where the woman shifts into reverse, traveling back to the time before her first relationship. Then, moving forward, she navigates a winding road, where each relationship becomes a station along the journey, offering a new experience and leaving a unique imprint on her.
The image of a woman driving along a road filled with challenges and beauty symbolizes self-awareness, reflection, and conscious decision-making in her emotional life—a journey that ultimately leads to union, which is both a final destination and an opportunity to reexamine the meaning of love and identity in the modern world.
The second section, titled "A Head Full of Sounds"**, explores themes of identity and love. This section, rich with natural and sensory imagery, reflects the emotional and social dualities of female roles in relationships. The poems in this section offer a closer view of the relationships narrated in the introduction, revealing the internal and external conflicts within male and female experiences. This exploration examines the connection between vulnerability and resilience within these roles.
The third section, titled "Adan, The Fertile Land"**, uses a direct and unfiltered voice to depict aspects of motherhood rarely addressed in literature. This section traces a turbulent journey—from the sorrow and shame of miscarriage, the difficult anticipation of pregnancy, to the joy and weight of becoming a mother.
The language and style of this collection bear similarities to Bindless Epic, but it has been published as an independent work. What led you to this decision?
My goal was to create two distinct collections based on feminine writing (Écriture Féminine)—one titled "Bindless Epic", which focuses not on the specific lived experiences of women but on broader social and political themes, and another titled "A Head Full of Sounds", which directly centers on female lived experiences. Both collections were written and compiled within the same timeframe, but due to their thematic differences, they were published separately.
The title A Head Full of Sounds suggests the multilayered nature of identity. How does this collection portray female identity in relation to environmental, historical, and cultural factors?
In my view, identity—both individual and collective—is dynamic, multilayered, and constantly evolving, and it should not be perceived as a fixed or predetermined construct. Each "sound" in this collection represents a dimension of my human, cultural, and social experiences—sounds that sometimes conflict and at other times harmonize. This multilayered nature reflects the essence of humanity, which continually redefines and reconstructs itself under environmental, historical, and cultural influences.
Moreover, I have always struggled with the persistent tension between Iranian and Western cultures. Many times, I have felt the expectation to embody a role defined by either Iranian or Western notions of womanhood. This internal conflict, coupled with my emotional and sensory experiences navigating these expectations, has shaped and continuously redefined my identity. As Judith Butler argues, identity is not solely influenced by environment—it is shaped through lived experiences, emotions, and the way we represent and understand ourselves within our surroundings. This is precisely what I have sought to capture in this collection—the fluidity, adaptability, and complexity of what it means to be called "woman."
This collection, through a deep exploration of female identity, examines themes such as womanhood, motherhood, identity, and the societal constraints imposed on women, linking them to traditional gender narratives in literature. How can contemporary feminist theories be reflected and analyzed in your poetry?
This collection represents my inner struggle and intellectual engagement with feminist theories, illustrating the tension between two distinct perspectives on femininity. Like most feminists, Simone de Beauvoir, a pioneer of second-wave feminism, has had a profound impact on my feminist outlook. With her famous statement, "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," she redefined femininity as a social and historical identity rather than an innate characteristic. From her perspective, biological differences do not inherently define gender roles and societal positions; rather, what is perceived as the difference between men and women is a product of social, cultural, and historical processes that have systematically imposed restrictive roles and positions on women.
Judith Butler, one of the most influential contemporary gender and feminist theorists, expanded this concept by arguing that gender identity results from the repetition of social behaviors rather than being a natural or even biological fact.
This perspective has deeply influenced my understanding of femininity, and naturally, it has found its way into various layers of this collection. For example, references to history, religion, and myths in literary and cultural texts—such as Eve, the novel The Former Husband of Ahoo Khanum, and mentions of Caucasian Gypsies—illustrate how culture and history have systematically framed and given meaning to women’s experiences across continuous historical trajectories.
However, my personal experiences as a woman have confronted me with undeniable aspects of my body that are not limited to social structures—tangible, real experiences such as menstruation, pregnancy, miscarriage, and breastfeeding. These experiences have led me toward a feminism that is more deeply intertwined with nature.
Julia Kristeva, in her theory of "the abject," explores the boundary between self and other, explaining how the female body—especially during pregnancy—dissolves this boundary. In pregnancy, a woman's body is simultaneously herself and the host of another being—a part of her yet separate from her. This state creates a unique experience of womanhood, in which established concepts of identity are transformed.
Kristeva believes that the specific characteristics of the female body—such as pregnancy—are often perceived as "abnormal" or "abject" within patriarchal social and cultural systems and are frequently marginalized or dismissed to exclude them from public discourse and daily life. Thus, bodily and "abject" experiences provide powerful tools for analyzing how culture perceives women's bodies and their position in society.
Similarly, Luce Irigaray has emphasized distinct bodily experiences such as menstruation, pregnancy, and breastfeeding, arguing that these biological aspects must be redefined within language, culture, and philosophy.
The contrast between urban and natural imagery plays a central role in this poetry collection. How does this contrast contribute to representing and redefining your cultural and individual identity?
As previously mentioned, I have attempted to create a subtle contrast between this collection and my other work. While both draw on feminine writing (Écriture Féminine), A Head Full of Sounds primarily focuses on womanhood. The direct connection between womanhood and nature in this collection originates from my belief (as an ecofeminist) in the link between the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature.
In this poetry, nature is not merely a backdrop for storytelling but a reflection of my lived experiences as a woman—experiences that, unlike masculine approaches, are not based on abstract or dominant concepts but rather rooted in tangible realities and embodied pains.
In this collection, nature and womanhood are deeply intertwined. Natural elements such as earth, fertility, wind, and rain not only reflect the cyclical processes of femininity but also demonstrate the interconnectedness of natural cycles and female experiences. These poems aim to show that despite their vulnerability, nature and womanhood possess an infinite power for transformation and renewal.
In section two, even when addressing deeply personal themes, the tone remains analytical, observant, and detached from emotions. However, in section three, you take a more intimate and profound approach, offering a tangible representation of sorrow, longing, and transformation. What does this shift in emotional expression reveal about you and your creative process?
What an interesting observation! I believe this shift is more related to the selection of poems for this collection rather than my personal style of expressing emotions in poetry.
During my twenties, I wrote many romantic poems with a raw, emotional, and vulnerable tone, and many of them can be found in my first collection, Lady Gemini (دختر خرداد). However, when I published this collection, I had already gotten married and become a mother. Unconsciously, I avoided selecting poems that were more exposed and referenced my past relationships.
Conversely, in section three, which narrates my experience of motherhood, I have expressed my emotions completely unfiltered.
This collection still features nonlinear narratives, polyphony, avant-garde expression, and deep bodily connections. However, what stands out more prominently is the cyclical nature and repetition. How does this pattern of return function within your poetry’s structure and themes, and what role does it play in conveying emotions and the overall message of the collection?
Cyclicality and repetition, like the other elements you mentioned, are key characteristics of feminine writing (Écriture Féminine). However, this collection’s specific focus on womanhood and its connection to nature may have led to a more pronounced presence of cyclical structures in the poems.
Camille Paglia, one of my favorite feminist thinkers, in her book Sexual Personae, views women as embodiments of nature, deeply linked to cycles of repetition and return. She believes that the female body, through biological rhythms such as menstruation, pregnancy, and life cycles, shares an inseparable connection with nature’s cyclical patterns—like tides, seasonal changes, and the passage of time.
According to Paglia, this connection symbolizes both the power of female creativity and the constraints imposed by biological destiny. In her view, women, like nature, exist within an endless cycle of regeneration, where death, birth, and transformation are intrinsic elements.
Paglia sees these cycles as dualistic—on one hand, they represent the force of creation, and on the other, an inevitable submission to fate. This duality has always been a part of my lived experiences, which is clearly reflected in my poetry.
I write about Saturn’s rings, about an apple that is eaten before it becomes a tree, about the desire to write while realizing it is too late to become a mother, about longing for a child that keeps slipping away through miscarriage. These contradictions and tensions are inseparable from my journey.
Perhaps this duality is what Lacan refers to as “the Real”—the moment when lived experiences intersect with the symbolic order and bodily reality.
In my poetry, cyclicality is not only a reflection of this deep connection with nature and womanhood but also an unconscious attempt to bridge the gap between agency and the limitations of the female body—an ongoing search for meaning within these contradictions.