This paper will examine the densely intertwined relationship between superstition, patriarchy, and parody in the Yemeni author Wajdi al-Ahdal’s 2008 comedic mystery novel A Land Without Jasmine, focusing in particular on the raw superstitions that characters invested in the patriarchal system rely on to maintain and perpetuate that system, and the various literary strategies al-Ahdal marshals to parody these superstitions. Using multiple narrative points of view, the novel addresses the disappearance and presumed abduction of and search for the titular woman (Jasmine), a college student. In every case, male characters react to Jasmine’s disappearance by condemning her presumed lack of rectitude, but the text shows these judgments to be invariably based on prejudice and superstition rather than observation or evidence. Meanwhile, in excerpts from her diary, Jasmine herself mounts a critique of Yemeni society’s dependence on a patriarchy backed by superstition. Still, this same diary is both explicitly a false front for her family’s consumption—Jasmine is well aware that her brother reads her diary as a matter of “honor”, and so takes care to consistently present herself as the victim of a hostile male gaze—and suffused with superstition in its own right. Through its use of satire, multiple perspectives, and a saintly apparition, A Land Without Jasmine comes to the bleak conclusion that Yemeni society is so steeped in premodern superstition that no meaningful move toward modernity is possible: even reform itself can only be conceptualized within a framework of mysticism. While superstition and patriarchy may be too entrenched in Yemen to allow for serious reform efforts, A Land Without Jasmine provides us with another avenue for change. The consistently bad logic used by the male characters to justify their prejudices is particularly vulnerable to the sort of mockery in which Jasmine and al-Ahdal’s narrative engage. Bleakness is the wrong response, the novel argues: satire is both more appropriate and more effective.