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Love and Sexuality in the Poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad: A Reconsideration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Farzaneh Milani
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Extract

No documents chart more accurately the difficult road to liberation and the arduous journey of the Iranian woman than her poetry. It is a rich, virtually unexplored record of the development of her consciousness and identity, experienced within, but not limited by, traditional Iranian culture. Furthermore, an evaluation of the Iranian woman's poetry is indispensable to an understanding of her life and the cultural pressures she experiences.

I am talking about the poetry of, among others, Tahereh, better known as Qorratol'ayn (1819-1852), ᶜAlam Taj Zhaleh Qa'em Maqami (1884-1946), Parvin E'tesami (1907-1941), Parvin Dowlatabadi (b. 1922), Simin Behbahani (b. 1927), Lo'bat Vala Shaybani (b. 1930), Mahin Sekandari (b. 1940), Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967), and Tahereh Saffarzadeh (b. 1936).

Unfortunately, most criticism of Iranian woman's poetry is rife with misconceptions, sexually biased assumptions, and tenacious refusals to confront this poetry on its own terms.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1-4: Literature and Society in Iran , 1982 , pp. 117 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1982

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Footnotes

I gratefully acknowledge the constructive comments of Amin Banani, Kaveh Safa-Isfahani, and Barbara Jaspersen in the writing of this paper.

References

Notes

1. For the poet's biography see: Esma'ili, Amir and Sedarat, Abolqasem, Javdaneh, Forugh Farrokhzad (Tehran: Marjan, 1972)Google Scholar; Hillmann, Michael C., “Forugh Farrokhzad: Modern Iranian Poet,” Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak (Austin: University of Texas, 1977), pp. 291–317Google Scholar; and Mehri Bharier, “Forugh Farrokhzad: Persian Poetess and Feminist,” M. Litt. Thesis, Durham University, 1978.

2. Shoja'oddin Shafa [Preface], Asir [The Captive], 8th printing (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1973), p. 4. Unless otherwise noted, translations from Persian in this paper are my own.

3. Windfuhr, Gernot L., “Forugh's ‘Born Again’: An Analysis and Interpretation,” Edebiyat 2 (1977), pp. 135–161.Google Scholar For a consideration of the article, see Hillmann, Michael C., “Sexuality in the Verse of Forugh Farrokhzad and the Structuralist View,” Edebiyat 3 (1978), pp. 191–211.Google Scholar

4. Sa'edi, Gholamhosayn and Tahbaz, Sirus, “An Interview with Forugh Farrokhzad,” Harfha'i ba Forugh (Tehran: Morvari, 1976/77), p. 48.Google Scholar

5. Arash, no. 13 (February/March 1967), p. 16.

6. Forugh Farrokhzad, “Born Again,” translated by Jascha Kessler with Banani, Amin, The Penguin Book of Women Poets, edited by Cosman, Carol, Keefe, Ivan, and Weaver, Kathleen (New York: Penguin Books, 1978), p. 278.Google Scholar