Historicizing women’s poetry involves investigation of the evolution of poetry by Iranian women from the beginnings of Persian literature in approximately 900 CE (400 AH) to the present (2023 CE/1402 HS). This study introduces women poets in each epoch in the context of their socio-political and historical situations as well as their poetic style.

There is no record of any women poets for up to 300 years after the Arab invasion of Persia which caused the demise of the Sasanian Empire. In other words, one cannot find mention of any woman poet in extant records from the Tahirid (r. 205–259 AH/821–873 CE) or Saffarid (r. 240–389 AH/861–1003 CE) dynasties. The reign of the Samanids was a prolific one for Persian literature and language, its creativity and richness reaching new heights, along with advances in the sciences, under the subsequent dynasties of the Daylamites, Ghaznavids, Seljuqs, and Khwarazmians.

The beginnings of women’s poetry reaches back to the 4th century AH (ca. 930 CE), a period known for the spread of the Khurāsānī and panegyric styles. Some poems from the following female poets between the 4th and 8th centuries AH (900 to 1400 CE) have survived: Rābiʿah, Kanīzak Mutribah, Parvīz Khātūn, Mahastī, Dukhtar Kāshgarī, ʿĀyishah Samarqandī, Dukhtar Sattī, Fāzilah Samarqandī, Pādshāh Khātūn, Dukhtar Hakīm Kāv, Jalāl Khātūn Samarqandīyyah, Bint al-Bukhārīyyah, Razīyah Ganjahʾī, Firdaws Mutribah, Dukhtar Sajistānīyyah, ʿĀyishah Muqrīyyah, Dukhtar Khatīb Ganjah, Dukhtar Sālār, and Sayyidah bint Nāsir. Of these poets, Rābiʿah (known for her sonnets) and Mahastī (famous for her quatrains) feature more prominently in literary anthologies due to their ties to contemporary power structures.

Figure 1: A painted portrait attributed to Rābiʿah Balkhī

Rābiʿah is the first female poet, some of whose poems have survived from the fourth century AH. Rābiʿah was the daughter of Kaʿb Qusdārī of the Qusdār (or Quzdār) region in the Sind Valley and a contemporary of Rūdakī, the Father of classical Persian poetry, during the reign of the Samanid dynasty. Five sonnets, thirteen quatrains and three couplets are all that survives from Rābiʿah’s work. Her poems are of a personal and amorous or romantic nature and are reflective of a woman’s inner feelings (cited as an example, the following poem has been selected as the most authoritative from among several extant variants):

Once again love I found
But my efforts did not abound
Love is an ocean boundless
O fool, you cannot rush around
To take love to its destination
Much unpleasantry you must surmount
Disgust you must see as goodness found
Venom you must see as sugar unbound
I was that wild steed, not knowing
Do not pull, the noose won’t come unwound¹See Rūhʹangīz Karāchī, Tārīkh-i shiꜥr-i zanān az āghāz tā sadah-ʾi hashtum Hijrī-i qamarī [A history of women poets from the beginning to the eighth century AH] (Tehran: Pazhūhashʹgāh-i ꜥUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliꜥāt-i Farhangī [Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies], 1394/2015), 156. Quoted in ꜥAbd al-Rahmān Jāmī, Nafahāt al-uns min hazirāt al-quds, edited by Mahmūd Ābidī (Tehran: Muʾassisah-ʾi Ittilāꜥāt, 1370/1991), 627.

Mahastī Ganjahʾī, an AH 6th/12th century poet, was Secretary of the Seljuq Sultan Sanjar’s court and a competent composer of quatrains. Her innovation involved the creation of a new style of poetry known as shahrʹāshūb within the quatrain metre in which the working class is praised while the flattery and puffery of panegyrist court poets are satirized. In so doing, she was able to influence the future reorientation of panegyristic style of poetry to some extent. Her poetry is reflective of her gender awareness in a restrictive culture:

Last night that gay beloved held my hand
‘There’s no escaping this enchanted man, come, let us band’
‘Tis nighttime, I said, let go of my hand
Or else all will see us here hand in hand²See Karāchī, Tārīkh-i shiꜥr-i zanān, 214. Quoted in Jamāl Khalīl Shirvānī, Nuzhat al-majālis, edited by Muhammad Amīn Rīyāhī (Tehran: Zavvār, 1266/1888), 544.

Dukhtar Sālār was an AH 7th/13th century poet, the first female panegyrist whose praise of the Seljuq ruler of Anatolia, ʿIzz al-Dīn Kaykāvūs, appears in the composite style. She composed the following lines for the monarch from Mosul:

Until I see my beloved and his teasing braid
So many sighs must I breathe I’m afraid
Thou hast left my bosom, where art thou?
How much for a moment, o favourite beloved where art thou?
I am filled with pain and need since we were separated
Until I can have you again, o coquettish beloved where art thou?³See Hassan ibn Muhammad ibn Bībī, Al-avāmir al-alāʾīyah fī al-umūr al-ālīyah yā Saljūqʹnāmah, edited by Jālih Muttahidīn (Tehran: Pazhūhashʹgāh-i ꜥUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliꜥāt-i Farhangī, 1390/2011), 120–25. Also see Karāchī, Tārīkh-i shiꜥr-i zanān, 370.

Figure 2: Sculpture of Mahastī Ganjahʾī, source: https://portals.nlai.ir/zanan/index.php?title=%D9%BE%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%87:%D9%85%D9%87%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C_%DA%AF%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%88%DB%8C.jpg

It can be argued that the political history of Iran roughly between the AH 7th to the 9th centuries (1220–1500 CE) began with the Mongol invasion and lasted – with the inclusion of the Ilkhanids, the Timurids, and other Mongol successor dynasties – for 250 years. This period was characterised by relentless raids by nomadic tribes who were alien to Iranian civilization and its value systems and who had no other aim than pillage and domination over the region. The result was the collapse of infrastructure in Iran and the subsequent disorder and instability that followed. These chaotic times adversely affected the sensibilities of contemporary artists: the volatile and crisis-ridden conditions in the external world meant an artistic tendency to take refuge in the internal world. Accordingly, the subject matter of poetry changed from descriptions of external beauty to a vehicle for the expression of the poet’s internal feelings, and thus lyrical poetry became a refuge for poetic emotions. What is more curious is that this period witnessed the creation of some of the most delightful love ghazals in this bloodiest and most violent of times. The panegyric ode of the pre-Mongol era transformed into love and mystical ghazals even as the Khurāsānī style metamorphosed into the Iraqi style. During this period, 27 women across the expanse of the Persianate cultural world composed their poems: Jahān Malik Khātūn, Bīʹnishān, Dawlat Samarqandī, Khvāhar Amīr, Mihrī Hiravī, Fātimah Khātūn Dūstī, Bībī Ātūnī, Zaʿīfī, Ārizū Samarqandī, Āfāq Bayga Jalāyir, Bīʹdilī Hiravī, Nahānī Kirmānī, Bayja Munajimah, Dukhtar-i Qāzī Samarqandī, ʿIsmatī, ʿIffatī Isfarāyinī, ʿIsmatī Asīstī, Zīnat Dukhtar-i Hisām Sālār, Lāʹāvar, Dilshād Khātūn, Dukhtar-i Fazl Allāh Naʿīmī, Ārāyish Baygum, Awrāq Sultān Baygum, Rūzbih, Bībī Hayāt, Hijābī Dukhtar-i Badr al-Dīn Hilālī, Bībī Tūrān. From among these women’s works some scattered couplets, several ghazals, and two dīvāns of poetry have survived. The most expansive of these are two divans: one was composed by Jahān Malik Khātūn (daughter of Masʿūd Shāh Īnjū, governor of Fars), and the other one is the dīvan of Bīʹnishān. Jahān Malik Khātūn is the first female composer of elegiac poetry and the most distinguished composer of ghazals among women poets. Her prolific output includes 1413 ghazals, 4 odes, one refrain, 117 elegiac couplets, and 375 quatrains. Her elegiac compositions on the death of her daughter are heart wrenching:

My cries of agony have surpassed the seven spheres
The river of my tears flows down the spout
The Sultan of fortune was merry on her throne
Oh why did she suddenly leave but for my misfortune?⁴Jahān Malik Khātūn, Dīvān-i Jahān Malik Khātūn [The dīvān of Jahān Malik Khātūn], edited by Pūrānʹdukht Kāshānīʹrād and Kāmil Ahmadʹnijād (Tehran: Zavvār, 1374/1995), 509.

Of Bīʹnishān’s works, 218 ghazals and 16 quatrains have survived:

The world has turned dark, where is my moon tonight?
For away from him my sighs of anguish have reached the heavens tonight
I am like that candle wax dripping silently from the fire of love
Except my warm tears, there is no other witness to my agony tonight⁵Bīʹnishān, Dīvān-i shiʿr [Dīvān of poems] (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, Supplément Persan 1102, microfilm, scan number 0092, f83). This is the only extant manuscript, together with the Dīvān-i Jahān Malik Khātūn. My edited volume of Bīʹnishān’s poetry is forthcoming.

The AH 10th/16th to the AH 12th/17th centuries witnessed the rise and fall of the Safavid, Afsharid, and Zand dynasties. Under the Safavids, the political, economic, and social structures underwent change and, along with the Shiification of Persia, led to the unification and consolidation of the empire. Art styles followed suit. For certain artistic enterprises such as architecture and painting, the change was positive and led to the prospering of those art forms. The Safavid statesmen were not patrons of poetry or literature, however. The Safavid state cherished only religious poetry and elegies. Between the end of the AH 9th/15th to the end of the AH 10th/16th centuries, the Iraqi style of poetry was gradually supplanted by the Indian style, characterized by abstract complexity, ambiguity, and slight imagination (nāzukʹkhiyāl). New forms of poetic expression took shape such as homophile poetry (shiʿr-i vuquʿ), antipathy and withdrawal (vāsukht), far-fetched imagination (tarz-i khiyāl), coffeehouse (qahvahʹkhānahʾī), contradictory parody (tazrīq), elegiac, and Shiite religious poetry, none of which became thriving genres but all of which contributed to the transformation of fine Persian poetry from its elaborate classical status into a popular and vernacular vehicle. In this period, religious poetry spread through elegies and religious epics leading to a general disregard for mystical poetry. In this same period, 33 women poets composed poetry: Zawjah Mīrzā Khalīl, Bībī Yamanī, Khān Khānūm Nayshābūrī, Khadījah Sultān Baygum Dāghistānī, Shāʿir Kātib-i Bīʹnām, Bayjah Nahānī Qāʾinī, Nahānī Shīrāzī, Nasāʾī, Fakhr al-Nisā, Khānʹzādah Turbatī, Shāhʹmalik Sayyid Baygum, Dukhtar-i Ghazālī Yazdī, Partaw Tabrīzī, Hayāt Hiravī, Jamīlah Fasīhah, Bint Hisām Sālār, Muhtaram Sarāhī, Zāʾirī, Bayjah Shikāfī, Zinā-yi Hijābī, Makhdūm Latīfah, Nahānī Dukhtar-i Mīrzā Yādigār, Dukhtar-i Amīr Nizām Astarābādī, Partaw Talākish, Bībī Hadīyah, Bībī Pardah, Nahānī Isfahānī, Hamdamī, Liqā Yazdī, ʿAlavīyah, Parī Baygah, ʿIffat Nisābih Shīrāzī, Haqīqī (Parī Khān Khānūm Safavī), and Nahālī Samarqandī. In this period, several women composed religious poetry for the first time, among whom is Khān Khānūm Nayshābūrī (Bībī Khānūm Baygum Nayshābūrī), the composer of the following lines:

Toward paradise with a heart that is merry
Free from affliction, hardship or weary
O khan grab on to His cloak
For thou art in His yoke⁶Khān Khānūm Nayshābūrī, Zīyā al-muʾminīn (Tehran, Kitābʹkhānah-ʾi Majlis-i Shawrā-yi Millī [Library, Museum and Document Centre of Iran Parliament], MS 87553, shelfmark: 14254), f97.

Or Bībī Yamanī whose poem reads:

Thy love hast endowed the wayfarers with wings
Thy desire in spiritual seekers hast bred mystical states
O thou for whose longing all hearts have spread their wings
Intoxicated like the moth and the nightingale, in ecstatic states⁷Bībī Yamanī, Dīvān-i Bībī Yamanī [The dīvān of Bībī Yamanī] (Tehran, Kitābʹkhānah-ʾi Dānishʹgāh-i Tihrān [Tehran University Central Library], MS 7777, microfilm M-000097777), f2.

The first versified travelogue written by a woman was penned in this period by Zawjah Mīrzā Khalīl (Shahrʹbānū Baygum), in rhyming couplets (masnavī) style:

How hast the Devious Fate made me afflicted
With the pain of separation from my beloved
Tranquil sleep in my bed became a scarcity
Until I saw no choice but to travel of necessity
My nights sleepless, my days a frenzy of barb
Until toward the Kaʿbah I put on my pilgrim’s garb⁸Shahrʹbānū Baygum, Safarʹnāmah-ʾi manzūmah-ʾi hajj [Versified Hajj travelogue], edited by Rasūl Jaʿfariyān (Tehran: Sāzmān-i Jugrāfiyāʾī-i Nīrūʹhā-yi Musallah [National Geographical Organization of Iran], 1386/2007), 1.

Two of these women poets have composed poems recording their most personal womanly feelings. While copying down the book Tarjumat al-khavās (a Quranic exegesis by Abū al-Hassan Zavvārihʾī, an Imāmīyyah scholar) in the AH 10th/16th century, Shāʿir Kātib-i Bīʹnām composed a 13-line stanza describing her state as a woman:

My heart is agitated, my bosom torn to pieces
From these suckling infants, these masterpieces
Feeling helpless under the burden of mothering
A pen in hand, a foot their cradle shuddering⁹Shāʿir Kātib-i Bīʹnām, Tarjumat al-khavās: Tafsīr-i nīmah-ʾi avval-i Qurān-i karīm [Translation of benefits: Exegesis of the first part of the glorious Quran], composed by Abū al-Hassan ʿAlī ibn Hassan Zavvārahʾī (AH 10th/16th c.) (Tehran, Kitābʹkhānah-ʾi Dānishʹgāh-i Tihrān [Tehran University Central Library], MS 2765), f25.

Bayjah Nahānī Qāʾinī addressed her spouse in this manner:

I will get a divorce, I will kick thee out
Two husbands will I take, to put thee out
One shall be a beardless young man
The other a ferocious Turkoman
With the youth I shall make merry and seek pleasure
The Turkoman I shall send to thee, measure for measure¹⁰Taqī al-Dīn Muhammad Awhadī Balyānī, ʿArafāt al-ʿāshiqīn va ʿarasāt al-ʿārifīn, edited by Zabīh Allāh Sāhibʹkārī and Āminah Fakhr Ahmad (Tehran: Markaz-i Pazhūhashī-i Mīrās-i Maktūb va Kitābʹkhānah-ʾi Majlis [Institute for Research on Written Heritage and Parliamentary Library], 1389/2010), 7:4527.

Hayātī Kirmānī, who lived near the end of the AH 12th/17th century, was a member of the Niʿmatʹallāhī Sufi order and composed mystical poetry:

With coquetry, the beauteous slender cupbearer yesternight
Did bring me a cup of nepenthes revitalizing my might
As I washed with that elixir all impressions of Other
God’s own image was reflected in my soul’s mirror¹¹Hayātī Kirmānī, Bībī Jān. Dīvān-i Hayātī Kirmānī [The dīvān of Hayātī Kirmānī], edited by Javād Nūrʹbakhsh (Tehran: Yaldā Qalam, 1380/2001), 17.

As politics and society changed in the second half of the AH 12th/17th century, tired and incomprehensible poetic styles were repulsed resulting in a shift in poetic expression. Poets began to turn away from the complexities of the Indian style and toward a revival of the style of the classical poets (what is known as Bāzgasht-i adabī ‘Return Movement’). The revival of the classical past continued throughout the Qajar era.

In the AH 13th/18th century (1795–1906 CE), during the Qajar period, the balance of political power began to shift [from the East to the West], leading to wars and revolts that result from such shifts in power. Such confrontations involved cultural cross-pollination, leading, in turn, to the gradual realization for the necessity of change in socio-cultural structures and institutions. The Return Movement, which had started under the Afsharids and the Zands, continued under the Qajars. Poets composed panegyric odes, historical epics, and religious poems. This period witnessed a rise in women poets who had ties to the ruling elite or in the royal court. It is conceivable that we might have easier access to information and sources from this period due to its historical proximity to us. The woman poets in this period mostly composed love poems. Two such poets are Rushhah (lived in AH 1241/1826) and Mastūrah (AH 1220–1264/1804–1848). Rushhah was the daughter of the renowned Hātaf Isfahānī. According to Qajar-era biographers, Rushhah had a dīvān of poems containing three thousand couplets. Of these 76 have come down to us and have been published within Hātaf Isfahānī’s dīvān. Rushhah wrote:

As retribution for choosing you over all else
Observe, how much reproach I heard from all else¹²Ahmad Hātaf Isfahānī, Dīvān-i Hātaf Isfahānī bih inzimām-i ashʿār-i Rushhah dukhtar-i Hātaf [Dīvān of Hātaf Isfahānī with poems by Rushhah, Hātaf’s daughter], ed. by Vahīd Dastgirdī, prefaced by ʿAbbās Iqbāl Āshtīyānī (Tehran: Nashriyāt-i Majallah-ʾi Armaghān, Kitābʹfurūshī-i Furūghī, 1349/1970), 192.

Of (Mastūrah Kurdistānī) Māhʹsharaf Khānūm Dīvānī’s work, some 180 ghazals, 29 quatrains, 142 rhyming couplets, composite poems, and a few other scattered stanzas remain. The following are the opening lines from one of her ghazals:

Separation from the Beloved has made my spirit vexed again
I have but one heart bearing a thousand cries of agony and pain¹³Mastūrah Kurdistānī (Māhʹsharaf Khānūm), Dīvān-i Mastūrah Kurdistānī [The dīvān of Mastūrah Kurdistānī], ed. by Ahmad Karamī (n.p.: “Mā”, Bart, 1362/1983), 66.

Hayrān Dunbulī is the first female poet with a bilingual poetic record (poems in Persian and Turkish). Her dīvān of 3588 couplets includes 333 ghazals in Persian, 68 quatrains, 2 mustazāds (a form of ghazal), 16 masnavīs (poems with rhyming couplets), 8 musammats (a form of masnavī), 2 composite poems, 3 narrative poems, 5 odes, 2 ode-ghazals, and 41 poems in Azeri Turkish which include ghazals, limericks, and composite poems. The following is a sample of her poetry:

How long will you enslave me in your shackles?
Is there a God to undo your shackles?
I know not what I have done that Fate
Would have me fall in your trap headlong straight¹⁴Hayrān Dunbulī, Dīvān-i Hayrān Dunbulī [The dīvān of Hayrān Dunbulī], ed. by Rūhʹangīz Karāchī (Tehran: Chāpār, 1393/2014), 78.

Some poets, including ʿIffat Qājār and Dawlat Qājār, composed poems in eulogy or elegy of Shi’ite imams, particularly the plight of the third Imam, Hussein, at Karbala. The following is an example by Dawlat Qājār:

Drown thyself in blood for the Caesar of Faith [i.e. Imam Hussein], O heart
Keep thy redness out of my flowing tears, O bleeding heart¹⁵Dawlat Qājār, Dīvān-i Dawlat Qājār va ʿIffat Qājār [The dīvān of Dawlat Qajar and ʿIffat Qājār] (Tehran, Markaz-i Dāyirat al-Maʿārif-i Islāmī [Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia], MS 780, shelfmark 95907. No page numbers).

During this period, the tendency toward membership in Sufi sects was prevalent among couriers and much poetry revolved around mystical and religious themes. More than 68 women poets composed their work during this period, most of whom had links to the royal court or were residents of some Qajar Shahs’ inner quarters. It is likely that Mahmūd Mīrzā Qājār’s biographic Nuql-i majlis [Sweet assembly] immortalized the names of these female poets. Arguably one of the most famous female poets of this period was Tāhirah Qurrat al-ʿAyn whose fame arose from her religious devotion to, and her promotion of, the Bahāʾī sect. She wrote thus in praise of Bahāʾ:

From envy and ambition cleansed
Many a veiled secret I confessed
To the holy names of the glorious heavens
Entwined, inspired insights offered
So you can see how from Bahā’s beauty
Many a glory I disclosed¹⁶Tāhirah Qurrat al-ʿAyn, Dīvān-i Qurrat al-ʿAyn [The dīvān of Qurrat al-ʿAyn] (Tehran, Markaz-i Dāyirat al-Maʿārif-i Islāmī [Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia], MS 1421, shelfmark 57443, copied in AH 1339/1920, 104.

Figure 3: sculpture of Māhʹsharaf Khānum Dīvānī (Mastūrah Kurdistānī)

Other female poets from this period include the following: Malūlī Shīrāzī, Durrat ul-ʿUlamā, Khadījah Kāshīyah, Maryam Khānūm Farāhānī, Sanʿat Lārī, Shahbāz Dunbulī (Sāhibah Sultān), Hamīdah Qāhānī, Sultān Bastāmī, Shādī, Āghā Kūchak, ʿIsmat Baygum Qājār, Malik Qājār, Māhʹrukhsār Khānum (Faghr al-Dawlah), Gawhar Qājār, Galīn Khānum, Qamar Qājār, Khāvar Khānum, Mahd ʿUlīyā, ʿAffāf, Hilāl, Sultān Qājār, Tāj al-Dawlah (Tāvūs Khānum), Munavvar Khānum, Zīyā al-Saltanah (Shāh Baygum), Tayyibah Qājār, ʿIsmat Qājār, Dawlat Qājār, Vālīyah (Hasan Jahān Khānum), Qamar al-Saltanah (Māhʹtābān Khānum), Fakhrī, Mastūrah Zand, Āghā Bājī, Dilshād Qājār, Nūshʹāfarīn, Gawhar Mulk, Shāhʹdukht Malāyirī, Rawhānīyah Basharūyah, Tāyir Tihrānī, Hammāmah Kirmānī, Tūbā Shīrāzī, Shah Baygum, ʿIffat Nasābah Shīrāzī, Zubaydah Khānum (Jahān Qājār), Tājʹmāh Zanjānī, Dilshād, Hamīdah Shaybānīyah, ʿAffāf Qājār, Zīvar Shāmlū, Bīʹbāk, Liqā Abarqūʾī, Hājīyah Zand, Khān Khānum Kūchak, ʿIshrat Shīrāzī, Um al-Salamah (ʿIsmat Qājār), Mihr Arfaʿ Jahānbānī, ʿIsmat Baygum, ʿIsmat Astarʹābādī, and ʿIffat Qājār (Humāyūn Sultān Khānum known as Khānum-i khānumān, or the lady of ladies).

The historical conditions that led to the Constitutional Era (AH 1324–1344/1906–1925 CE) [and the Constitutional Revolution in Iran] were shaped by increased political awareness, liberation movements and shifts in the sociopolitical structures of society, all of which led to the signing, by the Qajar monarch Muzaffar al-Dīn Shah, of the Constitution [in 1907]. The Constitutional Revolution had not fully borne its fruits yet when ideological conflict among royalists, constitutionalists and the clergy, as well as quarrel over secular constitutionalism versus religious constitutionalism (mashrūtah vs. mashrūʿah), derailed the movement. With the transformation in the political system and the tension-filled atmosphere of the time, Persian poetry, with its own history of advocating for liberty, underwent major transformations. Armed with novel ideas, content, and form, the language of poetry began to reflect the language of the age of enlightenment, and poetry’s sociopolitical aspect became more pronounced. Critical social themes such as the emancipation of women and justice became the subject matter of poetry. The poets began to adopt novel approaches to age-old concepts such as liberty, homeland (vatan), and woman. Some among women poets left behind the love-stricken imagination of traditional poetry and instead embraced a poetics of social awareness, composing their poems on issues such as equal education for women, the homeland, and liberty. Works by some ten women from this period have come down to us. Most of these are didactic and focus mainly on liberty and education for girls. Fātimah Sultān or Adībah al-Zamān Farāhānī (Shāhīn) paid special attention to the education of women:

The homeland is caught in a vortex, without science
It is impossible to save the homeland
If the daughters of the homeland acquire science
For their knowledge, they’ll become the mothers of the homeland¹⁷Rūhʹangīz Karāchī, Andīshahʹnigārān-i zan dar shiꜥr-i mashrūtah [Female composers of constitutional poetry] (Tehran: Dānishʹgāh-i Al-Zahrā, 1380/2001), 110.

Mihrʹtāj Rakhshān founded girls’ schools. She was also a Constitutional and post-Constitutional poet (during the reign of Reza Shah):

Figure 4: Portrait of Mihrʹtāj Rakhshān

Beware, there shall be no sorrow in the turmoil of the age
A bleeding heart is the price to pay to gain freedom¹⁸Karāchī, Andīshahʹnigārān-i zan dar shiꜥr-i mashrūtah, 112.

Jannat (Fasl-i Bahār Khānum), who like Mihrʹtāj Rakhshān wrote under Reza Shah, composed mostly love poems. Farkhundah Sāvujī and Rubāb Isfahānī wrote poems in praise and elegy of the Prophet of Islam and the Shi’ite Imams. Zīnat Mulk Iꜥtizādī, Hamīdah Sipihrī, and Maryam Khātūn Ābādī composed popular poems. Nīmtāj Salmāsī composed some critical-social poems, the most well-known of which is the following:

Iranians who desire divine charisma
Must first acquire their inner David
A great man with a greater will is required
With whose command to overcome the quagmire¹⁹ꜥAlī Akbar Mushīr Salīmī, Zanān-i sukhanʹvar: az yik hizār sāl pīsh tā imrūz kih bih zabān-i Fārsī sukhan guftah′and [Eloquent woman writers: Who composed poetry from a thousand years ago until today] (Tehran: Muʾassisah-ʾi Matbūꜥātī-i ꜥAlī Akbar ꜥIlmī, 1335/1956), 2:378.

The first and only woman who composed poetry using modern forms (following the styles of Taqī Rafꜥat and Jaꜥfar Khāminahʾī) was Shams Kasmāʾī. Her collection of poetry has apparently been lost to history, and only eight poems, two of which are in the modern forms, have survived. These were published in the periodical Āzādistān in 1299/1920 CE). Here is a sampling of her work:

Due to excessive fire of love, caresses, and affection
Because of the intensity of heat and light and radiation
The garden of my thoughts
Became muddy and spoiled, alas
Like shrivelled flowers my ingenious thoughts
Lost their freshness and became despondent
Aye, with muddied robes, I sit with my head on my knees
For I am bound to the land like a half-savage
Neither the power to rise
Nor the pull of shame
Neither arrow nor sword, nor even sharp teeth
Nor able to take flight
I therefore clasp the hands of my own gender²⁰Yahyā Āryanʹpūr, Az Sabā tā Nīmā [From Sabā to Nīmā] (Tehran: Zavvār, 1375/1996), 2:457.

Under Reza Shah (r. 1304–1320/1925–1940), the political, economic, and social systems in Iran underwent major transformations. A new order was established that could put the country on the path of development and progress. Remarkable initiatives were undertaken: establishment of state funded schools and universities as well as active encouragement of women’s involvement in society were pushed through with state support and, despite opposition from traditional social forces, brought about positive change to the society. Transformations in poetry and prose, which had been set in motion since the Constitutional Era, continued to evolve and both poetry and prose gravitated toward simplicity of style and language. The thirst for innovation in the form and subject matter of poetry was so insatiable that some of the most prominent figures in modern Persian literature emerged in this period. The most representative figure in this trend is Nīmā Yūshīj (1286–1338/1895–1960) and his poetry. Women poets continued to compose poetry using traditional forms in this period. There was a noticeable surge in poems revolving around the homeland and social issues. The most preeminent female poet in this period is Parvīn Iʿtisāmī (1285–1320/1907–1941). Her dīvān includes rich social-critical poetry composed in traditional forms such as qasīdah, masnavī and narrative munāzirahs (debate). Parvīn had an unmatched mastery over composing munāzirahs. She was rational and nonpartisan in her thought. Her innovation was the personification of inanimate objects using the classical medium. Here is an example of her poetry in qasīdah form:

The watchman is asleep in bed, the thieves set loose
The path is foggy, the caravan aimless, there’s no use.

In a munāzirah, she wrote:

The sheriff once saw a drunkard and grabbed him by the neck
“Oh friend, ‘tis a shirt, not a rein,” said the drunkard unchecked²¹Rūhangīz Karāchī, Parvīn Iꜥtisāmī (Shiraz: Dāstānʹsarā, 2004), 15–16.

Badrī Tundarī (Fānī) wrote:

Rise so we can tend to the wounds of the homeland
Of suffering, misery and disaster wash our hands²²Mushīr Salīmī, Zanān-i sukhanʹvar, 2:25.

Other women writers from this period—Fakhr ꜥUzmā Arghūn (Khalꜥatbarī) and Zandʹdukht Shīrāzī—were poets and journalists. Tājmāh Khānūm (Āfāq al-Dawlah) was a poet and the first female translator of drama. ꜥĀlamtāj Qāʾim Maqāmī (Zhālah) wrote during the reign of Reza Shah, but her poems were published under the reign of Reza Shah’s son, Muhammad Reza Shah. The defining features of her poetry include expression of lived experiences, realism, novel content (as opposed to classical themes), and opposition to misogynistic traditions:

Figure 5: Portrait of Zandʹdukht Shīrāzī

The constraints of tradition, religion, custom and chastity,
Are ornaments for women’s feet, not due to men’s capacity²³Rūhʹangīz Karāchī, ꜥĀlamtāj Qāʾim Maqāmī, Zhālah (Shiraz: Dāstānʹsarā, 1383/2004), 17.

The homeland and the question of women were favourite themes among female poets in this era. Some other women poets who wrote during the reign of Reza Shah include Shams al-Zuhā Nishāt, Parvīn Pīr Mārshāl Ghaybī, Mahkāmah Muhassis, and Nūr al-Hudā Manganah.

Under Muhammad Reza Shah (r. 1320–1357/1940–1979) Iran experienced an era of reconstruction, progress, and stability. Due to state support and encouragement, women’s role in politics, society and the arts became increasingly more prominent. Iran’s traditional society gradually faded even as modernity presented a different aspect of the new Iran. These state supports and the freedoms accorded to women did not last more than two decades, however, due to the challenges they presented to traditional culture. As a result, the new structures put in place under the Shah collapsed with the revolution of 1357/1979.

The reign of Muhammad Reza Shah witnessed the blossoming of Nimaic New Poetry (shiʿr-i naw/shiʿr-i Nīmāʾī). Nīmā Yūshīj and his followers were active in this period. Besides Nimaic New Poetry, there were also poems composed in traditional forms, the so-called four-fold stanza (chahārʹpārah), and after the 1340s/1960s novel forms of poetry such as White Poetry (shiʿr-i sipīd, a designation broadly equating free verse), New Wave (mawj-i naw, a form of prosaic poetry), and Hajm (Concrete Poetry, an evolved form of New Wave). Idealism, social realism, and symbolism were prevalent motifs in the poetry of this time. The foremost woman poet of this period is the celebrated Furūgh Farrukhʹzād (1313–1345/1934–1967). Furūgh modernized Nimaic new poetry in form and language, and by conflating traditional and modern techniques, she composed some of the most arresting poetry in modern Persian. Her poetry is novel, apparently simple, natural, as if conversant with the reader, with imagery composed of subjective and objective visual descriptions, all of which created a new womanly universe in which a woman’s innermost sentiments are revealed without reserve. She was the eminent forerunner, and the most popular, of contemporary poets. Below is a sample of her poetry:

I come from the world of indifferent minds and voices
And this world is akin to the snakes’ nest
And this world is filled with the sound of the footsteps of a people who, even as they kiss you,
In their minds, they weave the noose on which you’ll hang²⁴Furūgh Farrukhʹzād, Īmān biāvarīm bih āghāz-i fasl-i sard [Let us have haith in the dawn of the cold season] (Tehran: Murvārīd, 1354/1975), 19.

The leading composer of ghazals in this period was Sīmīn Bihbahānī whose works cover the range from love to social poems. During the time of the Islamic revival [i.e. the 1360s/1980s], she transformed the metrical system of classical poetry by adding new meters to its existing corpus which would accommodate the versification of social and political thought. Her poetry reached the peak of its classical-style maturity after the Islamic revolution (1358/1979):

I shall rebuild you, o homeland, even if the bricks are this life of mine
I shall keep your roofs in place, even if the columns are these bones of mine²⁵Sīmīn Bihbahānī, Dasht-i arzhan [The almond plains] (Tehran: Zavvār, 1983), 97.

Figure 6: Sīmīn Bihbahānī’s poetry in Persian

Zhālah Isfahānī’s poetic career centered around themes of the homeland and of migration:

O migrant birds, my heart feels anxious
Lest your distant journey be drawn out
And when Spring’s zephyr comes to the garden, without you
The blossoms of the apple trees will sprout²⁶Zhālah Isfahānī, Mawj dar mawj [Wave in wave] (Tehran: Alburz, 1376/1997), 161.

Women poets such as Luʿbat Vālā, Parvīn Bāmdād, Munīr Tāhā, Parvīn Dawlatʹābādī, Zhālah Isfahānī, Nūr Sayyārah Gīlānī, Dunyā Khurāsānī, Mīhan Iskandarī, Māhʹrukh Pūrzīnāl, Maryam Sāvujī, Āzar Khwājavī, and Rubāb Tamaddun continued to compose poetry in classical forms, and some chose to write poetry in the Nimaic or four-fold stanzaic (chahārʹpārah) forms. Maymanat Mīrʹsādiqī, Shādāb Vajdī, Mīnā Asadī, Mīnā Dastʹghayb, Mahastī Bahraynī, Laylā Kasrā, Parvānah Furūhar, Mahshīd Dargahī, Furūgh Mīlānī, Parvānah Mīlānī, Ruqīyah Kāvīyānī, ʿĀtifah Gurgīn, Shāhīn Hannānah, Humā Sayyār, Partaw Nūrī ʿAlā, Zhīlā Musāʿid, and Mahvash Musāʿid composed Nimaic style poems and free verse. In the 1340s/1960s, Tāhirah Saffārzādah proposed a new theory of poetry known as Tanīn (reverberation) to balance the explicitly political poetry of that epoch. She experimented with this new style by couching her poetic expression in a modern language and in a critical thought that was simultaneously social, religious, and cosmopolitan. The result was a unique, complex and defamiliarized form of poetry. Tāhirah wrote:

You are the footsteps of the desert
In the commotion of the thoroughfare of history
The oppressors have left you to the quandary²⁷Tāhirah Saffārʹzādah, Haft safar [Seven travels] (Tehran: Barg-i Zaytūn, 1384/2005), 124.

Figure 7,8, 9: Left to right: Parvīn Dawlatʹābādī, Munīr Tāhā, and Luʿbat

Some poets experimented with newer forms such as free verse, Sipīd, New Wave, and Hajm, including Batūl ʿAzīzpūr, Fīrūzah Mīzānī, Kāfīyah Jalīlīyān, Shahrzād (Akbarī Saʿīdī), and Humāyūnʹtāj Tabātabāʾī. Some features of Hajm and New Wave poetry included subjective relationships between inanimate objects, surrealistic images, convoluted and incomprehensible language, avoidance of common metrical systems in Persian poetry, evading norms, shunning commitment, and lack of attention to thought and meaning. During this period, many women were not able to publish their poetry due to the political content of their work. Even so, over 150 women poets composed poetry in various forms.

In the period after the Islamic revolution (1357 HS/1979 CE to the present), the collapse of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s dynasty, which had been demanded by various factions within society, was followed by the appropriation of political power by a specific religious faction. Shortly after the revolutionary zeal and excitement abated, the social and political climate began to change. Shifts in political, socio-economic, and religious structures began to impact all aspects of daily life, and the spread of religious beliefs and rules effected many transformations. The poets, too, began to be polarized. Poets with religious tendencies whose poetic subject matter and form were traditional wrote poems on topics ranging from religious elegies and eulogies of religious figures to poems about the Islamic revolution, the Iran-Iraq war and the martyrs of the war. Sīmīnʹdukht Vahīdī, Sipīdah Kāshānī, Fātimah Rākiʾī, and Naghmah Mustashār Nizāmī are well-known representatives of this group. Vahīdī’s poem “The sun man” (mard-i āftābī) is a eulogy:

Through the lands of winter this man has passed
In the alleyways of thunder and storm he has passed
For years this dauntless travelling man
Fearless and unperturbed, through the stormy nights he has passed²⁸Sīmīnʹdukht Vahīdī, Dīvān-i ashʿār [Collection of poems] (Tehran: Anjuman-i Qalam-i Īrān, 1390/2001), 136.

Of course, some poets wrote ghazals with a different content. Maryam Jaʿfarī Āzarʹmānī wrote:

After all the wars and politics and oppression, your Maryam in this disarray
Has just found a chance to fall in love and breathe; bid the sorrows to go away²⁹Maryam Jaʿfarī Āzarʹmānī, Zanān-i dilʹshudah [Heartbroken women] (Tehran: Tamaddun-i ʿIlmī, 1398/2019), 23.

Kubrā Musavī Qahʹfarrukhī, Farībā Yusifī, Pantiʾā Safāʾī, and many other younger poets have composed their poems in the ghazal/lyrical form.

The works of poets who engaged in ambitious innovations, or in formal, linguistic or semantic revisionism, or those who showed a tendency toward a radical departure from norms did not receive a welcoming reception. Ruzā Jamālī, Āfāq Shuhānī, and Shāhīn Khusravī are among such poets. There are also those poets who–disillusioned with the idealism, symbolism, and lionizations of the previous period–have experimented variously with poetic form, language and aesthetics, materializing in publications in existing or new forms of poetry and following existing or new movements in poetry: Nimaic, free verse, Sipīd, Hajm, New Wave, Pure Poetry (shiʿr-i nāb), Colloquialism (guftār), Post-semantic Poetry (shiʿr-i zabān), Simple Poetry, Postmodern, Third Wave, Alternate Poetry (shiʿr dar vazʿīyat-i dīgar), Post-new (farāʹnaw) and the like. In recent times, due to various reasons, there has been a surge in the emergence of women poets compared to previous periods, pointing to a social climate in which women have found poetry a safe haven for showcasing their creativity. In addition, women have increasingly received higher education and had virtual access to novel worlds. Further, at the present time due to ideological restrictions for women in certain artistic fields such as music and dance, women have not had a chance to display their talents and have instead increasingly taken to poetry as a safe space to showcase their creativity. The poetry of most poets in this period is in a way the expression of individuality and novel experiments with linguistic and structural innovation in Persian poetry. During this period, in excess of 600 women poets have produced poetry in various forms. Below is a sampling of their works:

Firishtah Sārī:

Tonight I shall fetch the breeze
And erect a flag with it
To proclaim the Republic of Winter³⁰Firishtah Sārī, Turbat-i ʿishq va jumhūrī-i zimistān [Sacred love and the republic of winter] (Tehran: Muʿallif, 1372/1993), 10.

Nāzanīn Nizām Shahīdī:

Today is the end of times
Before all sound freezes over
I heard all there was to say, through the voicemail
There was not much to say³¹Nāzanīn Nizām Shahīdī, Ammā man muʿāsir-i bādʹhā hastam [I am contemporary to the winds] (Mashhad: Nīkā, 1377/1998), 26.

Rujā Chamankār:

Words arrive out of your non-arrival
They scatter all over my ruins
They cling to my life like a nagging pain³²Rujā Chamankār, Murdan bih zabān-i mādarī [Dying in your mother tongue] (Tehran: Chishmah, 1389/2010), 55.

Laylā Kurdʹbacchah:

I love you
And how difficult it is to express simple thoughts³³Laylā Kurdʹbacchah, Āvāz-i kargadan [Rhinoceros’ song] (Tehran: Nīmāzh, 1395/2016), 88.

Girānāz Mūsavī:

I struggle with your eyes
A half-burnt lamp at the end of all departures³⁴Girānāz Mūsavī, Yik kalāgh va chihil tikkah az junūn [One crow and forty pieces of madness] (Kabul: Āy Khānum, 1398/2019), 39.