Forough Farrokhzad

Forough Farrokhzad (in Persian: فروغ فرخزاد;‎ 1935–1967) was an Iranian poet.

Related Topics:
Persian - 1935 - 1967 - Iran

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She and Parvin E'tesami are usually considered the most famous female poets of Iran.

Related Topics:
Parvin E'tesami - Iran

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She was born into a military family in Tehran in 1935. She had six siblings and attended school until the ninth grade. Then she was married either when she was sixteen or seventeen, and perhaps the confusion is due to getting muddled over a half-birthday. The man she married was Parviz Shapour, an acclaimed satirist. Forough continued her education with classes in painting and sewing and moved with her husband to Ahvaz. A year later, she had her only child, a son (subject of "A Poem for You").

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Not two years later, she and her husband were divorced. Parviz took custody of the child so that Forough could pursue her writing career. She moved back to Tehran to write poetry and published her first volume, entitled The Captive, in 1965.

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She had a series of swift relationships and as a divorcee with poetry concerning feminism and sex, she drew much attention and disapproval. In 1958 she spent nine months in Europe and met film-maker/writer Ebrahim Golestan. She published two more volumes, The Wall and The Rebellion before going to Tabriz to make a film about lepers. This 1962 film was called The House is Black and won awards world-wide.

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In 1963 she published Another Birth which was very fresh and profound in modern Iranian poetry.

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On February 14, 1967, Forough died in a car accident at age thirty-two. Her poem Let us believe in the beginning of the cold season was published posthumously and is considered the best-structured modern poem in Persian.

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