A00180 - Simin Behbahani, Iranian Poet, Activist and Translator

 Behbahani, Simin

Simin Behbahāni (b. June 20, 1927, Tehran, Iran – d. August 19, 2014, Tehran, Iran) was a prominent Iranian poet, activist and translator. She was Iran's national poet and an icon of modern Persian poetry. Iranian intelligentsia and literati affectionately refer to her as the lioness of Iran.  She was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature, and received many literary accolades from around the world.

Simin Behbahani, whose birth name was Simin Khalili, was the daughter of Abbās Khalili, poet, writer and editor of the Eghdām (Action) newspaper, and Fakhr-e Ozmā Arghun, poet and teacher of the French language. Abbās Khalili (1893–1971) wrote poetry in both Persian and Arabic and translated some 1100 verses of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh into Arabic. Fakhr-e Ozmā Arghun (1898–1966) was one of the progressive women of her time and a member of Kānun-e Nesvān-e Vatan'khāh (Association of Patriotic Women) between 1925 and 1929. In addition to her membership in Hezb-e Democrāt (Democratic Party) and Kānun-e Zanān (Women's Association), she was, for a time (1932), editor of the Āyandeh-ye Iran (Future of Iran) newspaper. She taught French at the secondary schools Nāmus, Dār ol-Mo'allemāt and No'bāvegān in Tehran.

Simin Behbahani started writing poetry at twelve years of age and published her first poem at the age of fourteen. She used the "Char Pareh" style of Nima Yooshij and subsequently turned to ghazal.  Behbahani contributed to a historic development by adding theatrical subjects and daily events and conversations to poetry using the ghazal style of poetry. She expanded the range of the traditional Persian verse forms and produced some of the most significant works of Persian literature in the 20th century.

Behbahani was President of The Iranian Writers' Association and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999 and 2002. In 2013, she was awarded the Janus Pannonius Grand Prize for Poetry. 

In early March 2010, Behbahani was prohibited from leaving the country due to official prohibitions. As she was about to board a plane to Paris, police detained her and interrogated her "all night long". She was released but without her passport. 

Behbahani had two marriages.  The first was to Hassan Behbahani and it ended in divorce.  She had three children from her first marriage, one daughter and two sons.  Her second marriage was to Manuchehr Koushyar and it ended when he died in 1984. 

Behbahani was hospitalized in Tehran on August 6, 2014. She remained in a coma from August 6 until her death on August 19, 2014. She died in Tehran's Pars Hospital. Her funeral was held on August 22 in Vahdat Hall and her body was buried at Behesht-e Zahra. 

The literary works of Simin Behbahani include the following:

• The Broken Lute [Seh-tar-e Shekasteh, 1951]
• Footprint [Ja-ye Pa, 1954]
• Chandelier [Chelcheragh, 1955]
• Marble [Marmar 1961]
• Resurrection [Rastakhiz, 1971]
• A Line of Speed and Fire [Khatti ze Sor'at va Atash, 1980]
• Arzhan Plain [Dasht-e Arzhan, 1983]
• Paper Dress [Kaghazin Jameh, 1992]
• A Window of Freedom [Yek Daricheh Azadi, 1995]
• Collected Poems [Tehran 2003]
• Maybe It's the Messiah [Shayad ke Masihast, Tehran 2003] Selected Poems, translated by Ismail Salami
• A Cup of Sin, Selected poems, translated by Farzaneh Milani and Kaveh Safa

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