Legendary Iranian poetess Simin Behbahani passes away

on August 19, 2021 | 8:15:51

After being in coma state for almost 13 days, the legendary Iranian poetess Simin Behbahani passed away in Pars Hospital of Tehran this morning, she was 87.

Behbahani known as ‘the great Iranian lady of Persian ghazal’ (a form of Persian lyric poetry similar to the Western sonnet) was suffering from respiratory and cardiac problems, however the doctors were hopeful about her condition.
Being nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature, Simin Khalili known as Simin Behbahani was the daughter of Abbas Khalili who was himself a poet, author and the editor of ‘Eghdam’ Newspaper.

Her uncle, Haj Mirza Hossein Haj Mirza Khalili known as Mirza Hossein Khalili, was one of the leaders of the Iranian Constitution Revolution and Allameh Molla Ali Razi Khalili Tehrani was his grandfather. His father Abbas Khalili composed poetry in Arabic as well as Persian.
Scholars acknowledge that Behbahani is a leading figure in of Persian ghazal since she was composing in some specific meters. The poetess began composing ghazals when she was a teenager. Then, the themes of her lyrics were humane feelings and romance but later, influenced by the modern Iranian poets, Behbahani tended to social themes and problems in her “Ghazale Rastakhiz” series.
Earlier, Deputy of Culture Minister Sayyed Abbas Salehi paid a visit to Behbahani and expressed sympathy with the Behbahani family as a number of other Iranian known poets such as Soheil Mahmoudi and Afshin Ala were also present there.
Among her several brilliant works, ‘A Cup of Sin, Selected Poems’ by Behbahani translated by Farzaneh Milani and Kaveh Safa has been published in English.