‘The Female Rumi’ and Feminine Mysticism: ‘God’s Weaver’ by Parvin Iʿtisami

Abstract

ABSTRACT Parvin Iʿtisami (1907–1941), the first important twentieth-century woman poet of Iran, was well versed in classical Persian poetry. Her knowledge of English language and education at the American school for girls as well as her father’s translations from foreign literature contributed to her appreciation of modern ideas, including women’s rights. Unlike some of her contemporaries in the early twentieth century who tried to revolutionize the form of Persian poetry, she expanded the potentiality of poetic language in its traditional forms. Iʿtisami’s profound knowledge of mystical Persian literature and her awareness of gender inequality as well as her familiarity with Western literature, particularly Walt Whitman, contributed to introducing a character in the poem ‘God’s Weaver’, a spider who possessed characteristics of a female and those of a mystic. Through this character, Iʿtisami formed an association between femininity and mysticism and challenged the patriarchal system, particularly the patriarchal discourse of Persian mysticism and the lethargy of the (mostly male) mystics.