Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Phd Student in Persian Language and Literature of Imam Khomeini International University of Qazvin, Qazvin, Iran
2 Assistant Prof in Persian Language and Literature of Imam Khomeini International University of Qazvin, Qazvin, Iran
Abstract
Throughout the history of Persian poetry prior to the Constitutional Revolution, the dominant literary current was thoroughly masculine in nature. The study and critical analysis of women’s poetry has, for the most part, remained neglected in literary historiography. With the Constitutional Movement and the simultaneous rise of women’s activism and their social demands, women began to play a more prominent role in society. Nevertheless, in the domain of poetry and literature, no significant stylistic transformation emerged that could be regarded as a lasting literary current. Although modernist intellectuals occasionally addressed women’s issues in their writings, such concerns were never at the core of their intellectual or socio-political agendas. Rather, they were often treated as secondary matters, instrumental to the broader objective of transforming Qajar absolutism into a constitutional order and implementing modernist ideals.During the Pahlavi period—often described as the height of women’s activism across political and social spheres—female participation encountered both progress and setbacks, with significant milestones such as the establishment of the Women’s Center during Reza Shah’s reign, and, later, the proliferation of women’s organizations and associations during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah. The impact of these socio-political dynamics on women’s poetry is evident in the emergence of influential figures such as Forough Farrokhzad, Simin Behbahani, and Tahereh Saffarzadeh. Since the Pahlavi era is not the primary focus of this study, we refrain from detailed examination here, merely noting that most literary transformations of that period were one-dimensional, largely aligned with feminist discourse and characterized by a deliberate distancing from traditional Iranian cultural patterns, whether viewed positively or negatively.After the Islamic Revolution, and particularly with the socio-political opening of the 1990s and the Reform Movement, women’s poetry achieved a distinctive literary presence.
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