Lobat Vala (born 1930 in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

) is an Iranian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and campaigner for the Women Liberation and Equal Rights in Iran.

Early life

Having been exiled from Iran since 1979, Vala lives in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and she lived in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

between 1980 and 1984. While there, she obtained an MA in

Middle Eastern Studies Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is gene ...

from

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

and in London worked as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and writer in Keyhan weekly newspaper until 2006. Vala has published several poetry books in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

References

External links

City of Poetry Lovers; In Teheran, Where Verse Is a Passion, The Styles Mingle and Often Clash (''The New York Times'')
(subscription required) Iranian dissidents Living people 20th-century Iranian poets Iranian women activists Iranian women's rights activists 1930 births University of Melbourne alumni 20th-century Persian-language writers Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United Kingdom Writers from Tehran Writers from London Iranian emigrants to the United Kingdom Iranian women writers Iranian women journalists Newspaper writers Writers from Melbourne Iranian women poets Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in Australia 21st-century Iranian poets {{Iran-bio-stub