Forough Farrokhzad’s Early Life
Forough-Ozzaman Farrokhzad, the 3rd of 7 children of Mohamma
d Farrokhzad, an army officer, and Batul Vaziry-Tabar, a housewife, was born on December 28th, 1934[1] in Tehran. Although they were considered a well-to-do family, Forough’s father as a person with military background raised his children according to military disciplines; the children were treated harshly, and they had to work from early adolescence to gain their pocket money. In an interview Forough said:
“Since childhood our father made us acquainted with what is known as ‘hardship.’ We slept and grew up in military blankets, whereas in our house fine and soft blankets could and can be found. Our father brought us up according to his especial norms.” (The Eternal Sunset, 68)
Her father’s attitude towards disciplining his children may seem harsh, but this training since childhood may be a reason for Forough’s independent and self-reliant personality in her adulthood. Although a military man, her father was also a man of culture having a small library at home, which prompted Forough’s early readings.
Forough started writing poetry at the young age of 14 while attending high school. Her early poems were in ghazal form _a classic Persian poetic form with a set of strict rhythmic and rhyming rules. She wrote these poems casually with no intention of publishing them, and indeed they were never published because she destroyed them almost as soon as they were done since she was scared of her father’s reaction towards her writing poetry.
In 1949 she entered an art school for girls where she learned painting and embroidery, which were popular skills for girls from the middle class when it was not common for them to attend university and receive an academic education.
Forough Farrokhzad
Feminine perspective in
Farrokhzad's poetry
- Farrokhzad's strong feminine voice became the focus of much negative attention and open disapproval, both during her lifetime and in the posthumous reception of her work.
- In a radio interview, when asked about the feminine perspective in her poems, Farrokhzad replied: "If my poems, as you say, have an aspect of femininity, it is of course quite natural. After all, fortunately, I am a woman. But if you speak of artistic merits, I think gender cannot play a role. In fact, to even voice such a suggestion is unethical. It is natural that a woman, because of her physical, emotional, and spiritual inclinations, may give certain issues greater attention, issues that men may not normally address. I believe that if those who choose art to express their inner self, feel they have to do so with their gender in mind, they would never progress in their art -- and that is not right. So when I write, if I keep thinking, oh I'm a woman and I must address feminine issues rather than human issues, then that is a kind of stopping and self-destruction. Because what matters, is to cultivate and nourish one's own positive characteristics until one reaches a level worthy of being a human. What is important is the work produced by a human being and not one labelled as a man or a woman. When a poem reaches a certain level of maturation, it separates itself from its creator and connects to a world where it is valid based on its own merits. Emphasizing human issues, she also calls for a recognition of women's abilities that goes beyond the traditional binary oppositions.
Forough Farrokhzad’s death
In 1965 she wrote her last work, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season, a poem that was published shortly after her death. In 1967, after a trip to Italy, she was driving down the street and swerved to avoid hitting a bus, crashing into a wall. She did not recover from her injuries and died a short time later at the age of just 32.
When the Islamic
Revolution spread throughout Iran in the following years, Farrokhzad’s work was
banned for almost a decade. Her poetry has since been translated into several
languages and she remains one of the most influential artists to have come out
of Iran in the last century.
