Simin Daneshvar

Simin Daneshvar (born April 28, 1921, Shiraz, Iran—died March 8, 2012, Tehran, Iran), was an Iranian author who wrote the enduringly popular Savūshūn (1969; published in English as Savushun: A Novel About Modern Iran, 1990, and as A Persian Requiem, 1991), the first modern Persian-language novel written by a woman. In 1948, while Daneshvar was studying Persian literature at the University of Tehran (Ph.D., 1949), she published a short-story collection, Atesh-e khamūsh (The Quenched Fire), the first such book by a woman to come out in Iran. She published a second collection, Shahrī chūn behesht (1961; A City as Paradise) before embarking on Savūshūn. Later novels include Jazīreh-ye Sargardānī (1992; The Island of Perplexity) and Sārebān-e sargardān (2002; Wandering Caravan Master). She was also known for her translations into Persian of such writers as Anton Chekhov and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Daneshvar was married (1950–69) to noted writer and intellectual Jalal Al-e Ahmad and taught art history at the University of Tehran from the late 1950s until her retirement in 1979.