Farzaneh Milani

Simin Behbahani: Iran's National Poet

Though Simin Behbahanis poems differ in their command of language, versatility of themes, and originality of images, they are unified from beginning to end by common traits. This poet has consistently been an advocate of individual rights, regardless of gender, class, religion, political affiliation, or ethnicity. She has transformed a conventional and mainly masculine poetic form—the ghazal. With her skillful mastery of poetic devices and techniques, she has integrated a classical genre with a modern vision, blending the old and the new, the masculine and the feminine. She has brought together the discourses of modernity and tradition, which, rather than competing in her work, complement, restructure and reconstruct each other. Hers is high art with popular appeal. This is all the more remarkable because Behbahanis adherence to the prosodic rules of the classical ghazal, her multifaceted outlook, her repeated allusions to prophets, philosophers, writers, literary characters, make great demands on her readers.

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

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 womans poetry is indispensable to an understanding of her life and the cultural pressures she experiences.