I am what is around me.‎ Women understand this.‎ Wallace Stevens, ‎ ‎“Theory” 1917‎   Introduction In the reading of hermetic texts, two streams emerge roughly in parallel: hermetic…

Persian avant-garde poetry stands as a cultural phenomenon characterized by its dual pursuit of aesthetic revolution and defiance against prevailing sociopolitical and cultural norms. Central to understanding this movement is the recognition of its roots…

In mid-1977, as unrest in Iran was percolating that would lead to the Iranian Revolution of 1978 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in early 1979, a collection of essays and translations…

Introduction Māh Sharaf Khānum Mastūrah, a nineteenth-century Iranian poet who wrote under the pen name “Mastūrah,” was born in Sanandaj (a city in the Kurdistān province) around 1220 AH/1805 CE. According to the Majmaʿ al-fusahā…

“Border art deals with shifting identities, border crossings, and hybridism,” —Gloria Anzaldúa  …

Her Life in Shiraz Jahān was an Injuid princess, and daughter of the ruler of Shiraz, Masʿūd Shāh (r. 736/1336-739/1339).1The Mirror of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women, trans. Dick Davis…

Introduction This article analyzes the deployment of multiple genres, or poly-generic capacity, and particularly the use of narrative games as a rhetorical device and figure of poetic language in Līmah Āfshīd’s poetry to illustrate the…

Introduction During the 1960s and 1970s, female poets relied heavily on translation to establish connections with one another. The primary objective of the first and second-wave feminism in translation was to articulate connections between female…

Nūr Jahān Baygum was one of the beloved and powerful wives of Nūr al-Dīn Jahāngīr (1569–1627), the Mughal emperor of India, and the first lady of his harem. Her date of birth is recorded as…

“Sin” (Gunah) is probably the most well-known poem of Forugh Farrokhzad, though it is not one of her best, even in comparison with most of the poems before the period of Another Birth (Rebirth). Apparently…

Of all the many ways in which literature can be delineated and categorized, distinctions along gender lines are perhaps the most complex. Debate around this label, and its implied hierarchy of writerly worth, remains divisive…

  Figure 1. Photo of the young Parvīn Dawlatābādī (Courtesy of Shīvā Dawlatābādī, taken February 7, 1955 in Paris). The Life and Works of Dawlatābādī1“Originally written in Persian, this article is translated by the editorial…

Introduction In the realm of feminist Persian poetry, certain names are frequently encountered, including Tāhirah Qurrat al-‘Ayn (AH 1230–1268/1817–1852), Zandukht Shīrāzī (1288–1331/1909–1953), Simin Behbahani (1306–1393/1927–2014), Forough Farrokhzad (1313–1345/1934–1967), and, more recently, Zhālih ‘Ālamtāj Qā’im-Maqāmī (1262–1326/1883–1947)….

Parvīn Iʿtisāmī’s Dīvān contains a short poem in which she explicitly states that “Parvīn is not a man”: The heart must be kept polished from the dust of futile thoughts so that the demon knows…

Parvīn I‘tisāmī, along with Īraj Mīrzā and Poet-Laureate Bahār, was the most prominent poet of early twentieth-century Iran, the form of whose poems was generally in the neoclassical style. And along with the latter two,…

Introduction Maymanat Zulqadr (Mīrsādiqī) (b. 1316/1937) is a prominent and well-known contemporary poet. For a period in her career, she published her poems under the pseudonyms ‘Āzādah’ and ‘Ānāhīt.’1The author wishes to express gratitude to…

Introduction The question mark after A‘lāmī’s date of birth might seem strange given the fact she lived until as recently as 2003; but in an interview granted to and recorded by Hamīd Ahmadī as part…

Introduction Shams-i Kasmāyī is a prominent figure in contemporary Persian poetry; however, her poetic language and thought have not received considerable attention, for various reasons. Although her ancestry can be traced back to Gilan and…

Introduction Shukūh Qāsimniyā, whose original name is Fātimah Hamadānī Qāsimniyā, is an Iranian author of children’s fiction and poetry who has been actively engaged in a wide range of creative endeavours, including poetry, fiction, adaptations…

The ancient Iranian king Bahrām Gūr, hero of Nizāmī’s romance, Haft paykar, was considered to be the first Persian poet with one extant verse to his name. This tidbit of information was mentioned by ‘Awfi,…

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 HQ) to the present (2023 CE/1402 HS). This study introduces women…

Introduction This article has two objectives. It casts a look at the life and creative contributions of the Tajik poetess Gulrukhsor Safieva, as well as shows how Safieva, in an Islamic milieu suffused with socialist…

Introduction Poetry has been the heart of Persianate culture for a long time. More than any artistic media, poems have shaped and manifested Persian mental life for about a millennium.1[The author wishes to express her…

“There is perhaps a tendency to romanticize resistance,” writes Lila Abu-Lughod——in her influential article “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women.”1Lila Abu-Lughod, “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through…

Zhālah Qāʾim-Maqāmī and the Omission of the Audience in Favour of Feminine Poetry ʿĀlam-Tāj Qāʾim Maqāmī, who wrote under the penname “Zhālah,” is one of the most important contemporary women poets, and arguably the pioneer…