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, <i> 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.