Mina Assadi (; born March 12, 1943) is an Iranian-born

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

who lives in exile in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden.

Author

Assadi wrote her debut book, a collection of poems named ''Minas Gift'' (Armanghane Mina), at the age of 18. Thereafter she worked as a journalist for several well-known Iranian magazines, for example, ''

Kayhan ''Kayhan'' () is a Persian-language newspaper published in Tehran, Iran. It is considered "the most conservative and hard-line Iranian newspaper." Hossein Shariatmadari is the editor-in-chief of ''Kayhan''. According to the report of the ' ...

''. She has written 14 books in total, the book ''Who Throws Rocks'' (Che kasi sang miandazad) attracting the most attention. She is known for writing about controversial and provocative subjects, especially when she describes the fight against the Iranian government. In 2007 she wrote the poem called "Pimps" (Djakesha). It caused a lot of discussion for being too vulgar. The poem is about those who live in Iran and in exile who have forgotten the struggle.

Songwriter

Assadi has also written songs for Iranian singers like Ebi ("Halah"),

Dariush Dariush (), also spelled Darioush, Daryoush, or Daryoosh, is a Persian-language masculine given name. It is composed of () and (), meaning ''holding firm the good''. Within the Achaemenid dynasty, three rulers of the Persian Empire held the n ...

("Zendegi yek bazieh" and "Ahay javoon"),

Hayedeh Ma'soumeh Dadehbala (; April 10, 1942 – January 20, 1990), known professionally as Hayedeh (, ), was an Iranian singer with a contralto vocal range. Known for her wide range of voice, her career spanned over two decades, and she has been widely ...

("Onkeh yek roozi barayeh man khoda bod"),

Giti Giti Pashaei Tehrani (; sometimes spelt Giti Pashayi; June 13, 1940 – May 7, 1995) was an Iranian singer and musician. Pashaei was one of the most popular Iranian singers of the late 1960s and 1970s. Biography Giti Pashaei was born on June 13, ...

("Oje parvaz"), Ramesh ("To aftabi, to baroni") and Nooshafarin ("Koh he ghavei") and Afshin ("delam az ru nemire) to name a few.

Reception

Ten days before the Iranian cultural personality and singer

Fereydoun Farrokhzad Fereydoun Farrokhzad (; October 7, 1936 – August 7, 1992) was an Iranian showman, host, poet, actor, political activist, singer, humanitarian, and writer. He is best known for his television variety show, ''The Silver Carnation'', which introdu ...

was murdered in Germany on August 7, 1992, he had a poetry evening. The evening was interspersed with poems, songs and political statements. There, Fereydoun compared his late sister, the contemporary poet

Forough Farrokhzad Forugh Farrokhzad (; 28 December 1934 – 14 February 1967) was an influential Iranian poet and film director. She was a controversial modernist poet and an iconoclastic,* feminist author. Farrokhzad died in a car accident at the age of 32. Ear ...

, to Mina Assadi. A statement that was filmed and became the last video with Fereydoun before his death. “In the time we live in, there are other Iranian poets like Forough as well…

Simin Daneshvar Simin Dāneshvar (‎; 28 April 1921 – 8 March 2012) was an Iranian 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, ...

Simin Behbahani Simin Behbahani, her surname also appears as Bihbahani (née Siminbar Khalili; ; 20 July 1927 – 19 August 2014) was a prominent Iranian contemporary poet, lyricist, and activist. Renowned for her mastery of the ghazal, a traditional poetic for ...

, Mina Assadi to name a few. In Stockholm, Sweden, where Mina Assadi is located I asked all the intellectuals in the hall, 500-600 Iranians, why they treat Mina Assadi badly? For Forough that is no longer alive you gather, but you pay little attention to Mina Assadi who is still alive… she is also a Forough… with white hair, without any makeup, she lives a painfully difficult life in exile… but no one pays attention to her and instead they down her. Have you ever heard that there was a memorial evening to honor Mina Assadi? Have you heard of one? Neither have I. She is a poet of the

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

. One of the great female poets of our time.” Mina Assadi has also been compared to other Persian poets like

and

Parvin E'tesami Rakhshandeh E'tesami (, ''Raḵšanda Eʿteṣāmī''; 17 March 1907 – 4 April 1941), better known as Parvin E'tesami (), was a 20th-century Iranian Persian language, Persian poet. Life Parvin E'tesami was born on 17 March 1907 in Tabriz to M ...

and Swedish poets

Karl Vennberg Karl Vennberg (11 April 1910 – 12 May 1995) was a Swedish poet, writer and translator. Born in Blädinge parish, Alvesta Municipality, Kronoberg County as the son of a farmer, Vennberg studied at Lund University and in Stockholm and worked as ...

and

Edith Södergran Edith Irene Södergran (4 April 1892 – 24 June 1923) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet. One of the first modernists within Swedish-language literature, her influences came from French Symbolism, German expressionism, and Russian f ...

Personal life

In 1996, she received a Hellman/Hammett Grant from

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, U.S.

Sources

* R M Chopra, "Eminent Poetesses of Persian", Iran Society, Kolkata, 2010.
"Mina Assadi is the Forough Farrokhzad of today"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Assadi, Mina 1943 births Living people Persian-language women poets Persian-language poets People from Sari, Iran Iranian emigrants to Sweden Iranian songwriters 21st-century Iranian poets 21st-century Iranian short story writers Iranian women poets Iranian essayists Iranian journalists Iranian women journalists Iranian women short story writers Iranian women novelists Iranian novelists Iranian women essayists 21st-century essayists 20th-century Iranian women writers 20th-century Iranian writers 21st-century Iranian women writers 21st-century Iranian writers