Rouhangiz Karachi

Rouhangiz Karachi is a full Professor at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (Pazhūhishʹgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliʿāt-i Farhangī) in Tehran. She completed her education in Persian language and literature in Tehran and Bombay. Her PhD dissertation (1364/1985), “Nigarishī bar shiʿr-i shāʿirahʹhā az Mashrūtiyyat tā suqūt-i saltanat-i Pahlavī” [A study of women poets’ poetry from the Constitutional Revolution to the fall of the Pahlavi monarchy], laid the foundation for her later research on women in didactic, epic, and lyrical literature, on gender, and on the history of Iranian women’s poetry. She has published seventeen research books and written more than twenty-one scholarly-research articles, twenty-two scholarly-popular articles for encyclopedias and reference works, and more than twenty articles in periodicals.

In addition to her academic work, Dr. Karachi is also an accomplished poet. Her first poems appeared in 1349/1970, and she has since published several collections, including Bā kābūsʹhā-yi zan [With woman’s nightmares] (Tehran: Murgh-i Āmīn, 1377/1998), Chashmʹhā-yi lūch-i zamīn [The Earth’s crossed eyes] (Tehran: Nigāh-i Sabz, 1380/2001), and Guzīnah-ʾi ashʿār [Selected poems] (Tehran: Murvārīd, 1397/2018). Her poems have been widely anthologized and featured in numerous literary journals. A selection of her poems was translated from Persian into English by Dr. Mojdeh Bahar and published in the United States as Silence and Lost Words (Mage Publishers, 2025).

Her monographs, editions, and edited volumes include: Andīshahʹnigārān-i zan dar shiʿr-i mashrūtah [An enquiry into the poems of intellectual poetesses during the Constitutional Period] (Tehran: Dānishgāh-i al-Zahrā, 1374/1995); Furūgh, yāghī-i maghmūm [Furūgh, the sorrowful rebel] (Tehran: Rāhīyān-i Andīshah, 1376/1997); Parvīn Iʿtisāmī: Hamrāh bā kitābʹshināsī-i tawsīfī [Parvīn Iʿtisāmī: With an annotated bibliography] (Tehran: Idārah-i Irshād-i Tihrān, 1376/1997); Dīdārhā-yi dūr: Pazhūhishī dar adabiyyāt-i safarʹnāmah-ʾī [Distant encounters: A study of travel-writing literature] (Tehran: Chāpār, 1381/2002); Parvīn Iʿtisāmī: Hamrāh bā kitābʹshināsī-i tawsīfī (Shiraz: Dāstānʹsarā, 1383/2004); Furūgh Farrukhʹzād: Hamrāh bā kitābʹshināsī [Furūgh Farrukhʹzād: With a bibliography] (Shiraz: Dāstānʹsarā, 1383/2004); Zhālah, ʿĀlamʹtāj Qāʾimʹmaqāmī va haft barrasī [Zhālah, ʿĀlamʹtāj Qāʾimʹmaqāmī, and seven essays] (Shiraz: Dāstānʹsarā, 1383/2004); Bānū Gushaspʹnāmah: Tashīh-i nuskhah-ʾi khattī [Bānū Gushaspʹnāmah: A critical edition of the manuscript] (Tehran: Pazhūhishʹgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliʿāt-i Farhangī, 1382/2003); Zafarʹnāmah by Hamd Allāh Mustawfī, vol. 4 (Tehran: Pazhūhishʹgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliʿāt-i Farhangī, 1387/2008); Hasht risālah dar bayān-i ahvāl-i zanān az 1000 tā 1313 Hijrī-i qamarī [Eight treatises on women issues between 1591 and 1896], critical edition of several manuscripts (Tehran: Pazhūhishʹgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliʿāt-i Farhangī, 1390/2011); Farhang-i vāzhahʹnamā-yi ashʿār-i Furūgh Farrukhʹzād [A concordance dictionary of Furūgh Farrukhʹzād’s poems], in collaboration with Mītrā Tūsī (Tehran: Chāpār, 1390/2011); Fārsī-i Fīrūzābādī (Tehran: Pazhūhishʹgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliʿāt-i Farhangī, 1390/2011); Dīvān-i Hayrān Dunbulī: Tashīh-i nuskhah-ʾi khattī [The dīvān of Hayrān Dunbulī: A critical edition of the manuscript] (Tehran: Chāpār, 1393/2014); Khushūnat-i mushfiqānah: Tashīh-i chand nuskhah-ʾi khattī [Compassionate violence: A critical edition of several manuscripts] (Tehran: Tārīkh-i Īrān, 1394/2015); Tārīkh-i shiʿr-i zanān: Az āghāz tā sadah-ʾi hashtum-i Hijrī-i qamarī [The history of women’s poetry: From the beginnings to the AH 8th/14th century] (Tehran: Pazhūhishʹgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliʿāt-i Farhangī, 1394/2015); Fīrūzābād: Tārīkh, farhang [Firuzabad: History and culture] (Tehran: Pazhūhishʹgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī va Mutāliʿāt-i Farhangī, 1396/2017); and Nigarah-ʾī dīgar bih nukhustīn hamāsah-ʾi zan-garā, Bānū Gushaspʹnāmah [Another look at the first woman-centered epic, Bānū Gushaspʹnāmah] (Tehran: Sālis, 1404/2025).

Her Tārīkh-i shiʿr-i zanān was selected as the winning work at the seventh Parvīn Iʿtisāmī Literary Prize (Jāyizah-ʾi Adabī-i Parvīn Iʿtisāmī) in 1395/2016. At the sixth prize, in 1394/2015, she was honored as a “Parvīn-pazhūh” [Parvīn scholar] for Parvīn Iʿtisāmī: Hamrāh bā kitābʹshināsī-i tawsīfī. She serves on the editorial boards of three scholarly journals: Adabiyyāt-i Pārsī-i Muʿāsir [Contemporary Persian literature], Kuhanʹnāmah-ʾi Adab-i Pārsī [Classical Persian literature], and Pazhūhishʹhā-yi Bayn-rishtah-ʾī-yi Adabī [Interdisciplinary literary studies].

Contributions

The History of Women’s Poetry: From the Beginnings to the Present

Historicizing women’s poetry involves investigation of the evolution of poetry by Iranian women from the beginnings of Persian literature in…