Iranian author Simin Daneshvar dies
Simin Daneshvar, Iran’s first female novelist, passed away Thursday at the age of 91, sources reported. She was hospitalized due to a stroke at Pars Hospital in Tehran.
“Savushun,” one of Daneshvar’s best known works, was the first major novel written by an Iranian woman. Published in 1969, it was in translated into 17 languages and became Iran’s best-seller fiction for decades.
Daneshvar was born in Shiraz in 1921. She studied at Stanford University and the University of Tehran. At age 27, she published her first book titled “Atashe Khamush,” a collection of short stories, first-ever by an Iranian female author. Daneshvar who lived in the United States at times, published short stories in English and translated into Persian works by authors like Anton Chekhov and George Bernard Shaw. She was married to famed Iranian author Jalal Al-e Ahmad.
Daneshvar’s passing on March 8, the International Women’s Day, is a notable coincidence, as she was a pioneer woman author in Persian literature and academia.
