Simin Daneshvar

Simin Dāneshvar
سیمین دانشور
Born(1921-04-28)28 April 1921
Fasa, Iran
Died8 March 2012(2012-03-08) (aged 90)[1]
Tehran, Iran[2]
Resting placeBehesht-e Zahra Cemetery
NationalityIranian
Alma materUniversity of Tehran
Stanford University
Occupation(s)Academic, novelist, fiction writer, literary translator
SpouseJalal Al-e-Ahmad (1950−1969, his death)

Simin Dāneshvar[3] (Persian: سیمین دانشور‎; 28 April 1921 – 8 March 2012) was an Iranian[4] academic, novelist, fiction writer, and translator.

She was largely regarded as the first major Iranian woman novelist. Her books dealt with the lives of ordinary Iranians, especially those of women, and through the lens of recent political and social events in Iran at the time.[5] Daneshvar had a number of firsts to her credit; in 1948, her collection of Persian short stories was the first by an Iranian woman to be published. The first novel by an Iranian woman was her Savushun ("Mourners of Siyâvash", also known as A Persian Requiem,[6] 1966), which went on to become a bestseller.[7] Daneshvar's Playhouse, a collection of five stories and two autobiographical pieces, is the first volume of translated stories by an Iranian woman author. Being the wife of the famous Iranian writer Jalal al-Ahmad, she had a profound influence on his writing, she wrote the book "the Dawn of Jalal" in memory of her husband. Daneshvar was also a renowned translator, a few of her translations were "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov and "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her last book is currently lost and was supposed to be the last book of her trilogy which started with "the lost island". Al-Ahmad and Daneshvar never had a child.[8]

  1. ^ Pouria Mirzazadeh (1921-04-28). "Simin Daneshvar: Influential author has died". Iranian.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
  2. ^ "سیمین دانشور در سن ۹۰ سالگی درگذشت" Archived 2012-03-11 at the Wayback Machine (in Persian). Hamshahri Online. 8 March 2012.
  3. ^ Simin (سیمین) means "silvery, lustrous" or "fair", and Dāneshvar (دانشور) is a combination of dānesh (دانش) "knowledge, science" and -var (-ور), a suffix indicative of one's profession or vocation, the combined form meaning "learned person, scholar".
  4. ^ "The iconic Persian writer Simin Daneshvar Passes Away in Tehran". www.payvand.com. Archived from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  5. ^ "Simin Daneshvar". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  6. ^ A Persian Requiem by Simin Daneshvar Archived 2012-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Simin Daneshvar, first Iranian female novelist who created masterpieces". Islamic Republic News Agency.
  8. ^ Daneshvar's Playhouse: A Collection of Stories - Fiction Books Translated from Persian From Iran Archived 2007-07-02 at the Wayback Machine