Editors’ Note

Abstract

Women have always been an integral part of Persian literature and culture, but until recent times, their work has not been acknowledged. This, of course, was the result of the general inequality that women have suffered throughout history, particularly in societies where there was a strict male-female segregation. In the history of Persian literature, we are familiar with the works of Rābi‘a bent Ka‘b, Mahsatī (Mahastī) Ganjavī, Jahān Malak Khātūn, Ṭāhira Qazvīnī, and, more recently, ‘Ālamtāj Qā’im-Maqāmī (Jaleh), Ṣādiqa Daulat-Ābādī, Shams Kasmā’ī, and one or two others. But there must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of women poets and writers whose work was unseen and forgotten.The Constitutional Revolution of 1906–11 paved the way for the emergence of women poets and writers, some of whom, such as Parvin E‘tesami, Forugh Farrokhzad, and Simin Daneshvar, made great inroads in their profession. Since then, the progress of women’s participation in literature and culture has steadily continued, so that after the Islamic Revolution in February 1979, numerous novels, short stories, and many compilations of poems by Iranian women have been published.Thus, this issue, guest-edited by prominent scholars Nasrin Rahimieh and Claudia Yaghoobi, is a timely contribution to the study of this important subject, and hopefully will be followed by others to come.We dedicate this volume to all the women who have toiled to make what was impossible possible by their grit, determination, sense of justice, and talent—not only in this century but the many arduous ones that preceded it.