Simin Daneshvar

Simin Daneshvar was born on 28 April 1921 in Shiraz, Persia. Her father, Mohammad Ali Danesvhar, was a physician. Her mother was a painter. Daneshvar attended the English bilingual school, Mehr Ain. Daneshvar entered the Persian literature department at the University of Tehran in the fall of 1938. In 1941, her third year of university, her father died, and to support herself she began writing pieces for Radio Tehran as the "Nameless Shirazi." She wrote about cooking and food as well as other things. She also began writing for the foreign affairs section of a newspaper in Tehran, since she could translate from English.

In 1948, when she was 27, she published Atash-e khamoosh (Quenched Fire). It was the first collection of short stories published by a woman in Iran, and as such gave her a measure of fame, but in later years Daneshvar refused to republish the work because she was embarrassed by the juvenile quality of the writing. Daneshvar continued studying at the university. Her Ph.D. dissertation, "Beauty as Treated in Persian Literature," was approved in 1949 under the supervision of Professor Badiozzaman Forouzanfar. In 1950, Daneshvar married the well-known Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad. In 1952, she traveled to the United States as a Fulbright Fellow working on creative writing at Stanford University with Wallace Stegner. While there, she wrote in English and published two short stories. When she returned to Iran, she joined the faculty at University of Tehran.

Though she was an exceptional teacher, SAVAK prevented her from ever reaching the status of professor. She had to translate many books in order to support her household, often was earning more than Jalal. In 1961 she published "Shahri chun behesht" (A city like paradise), twelve years after her first short story collection. In 1963 she attended the Harvard University International Summer Session, a seminar of 40 members from around the world. In 1968, she became the chairwoman of the Iranian Writers Union. In 1969, her novel, Suvashun, was published. Her husband died that same year, in their summer home on the Caspian Sea. They had no children. Daneshvar continued teaching until 1981, when she retired. Since then, she has devoted herself to writing.

Daneshvar was hospitalized in Tehran for acute respiratory problems in 2005. She was released after one month in August 2005. She died at her home in Tehran on 8 March 2012 after a bout with influenza. Her body was buried on 11 March at Behesht-e Zahra. (It had been announced that her body would be buried in Firouzabadi mosque in Ray next to her husband, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, but this was later denied.)

As an author and translator, Daneshvar wrote sensitively about the lives of Iranian women.

Daneshvar's most successful work, Savushun, a novel about settled and tribal life in and around her home-town of Shiraz, was published in 1969. One of the best-selling Persian novels, it has undergone at least sixteen reprints and has been translated into many languages. She also contributed to the periodicals Sokhan and Alefba.

In 1981, she completed a monograph on Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Ghoroub-e Jalal (The sunset of Jalal's days).

Daneshvar's stories reflect reality rather than fantasy. They contain themes such as child theft, adultery, marriage, childbirth, sickness, death, treason, profiteering, illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and loneliness. The issues she deals with are the social problems of the 1960s and 1970s, which have immediacy and credibility for the reader. Her inspiration is drawn from the people around her. In her own words: "Simple people have much to offer. They must be able to give freely and with peace of mind. We, too, in return, must give to them to the best of our abilities. We must , with all our heart , try to help them acquire what they truly deserve."

Novels

• Savushun (1969)
• Selection [Entekhāb] (2007)
• the trilogy Wandering [Sargardāni]
  • Wandering Island (Island of Wandering) [Jazire-ye Sargardāni] (1992)
  • Wandering Cameleer [Sāreban-e Sargardān] (2001)
  • Wandering Mountain [Kuh-e Sargardān] (never published, unknown reason)^*

Short story collections

• The Quenched Fire [Atash-e Khamoosh] (1948)
• A City Like Paradise [Shahri Chun Behesht] (1961)
• To Whom Shall I Say Hello? [Be Ki Salaam Konam?] (1980)

Translations by Daneshvar

• Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw (1949)
• "Enemies" by Anton Chekhov (1949)
• Beatrice by Arthur Schnitzler (1953)
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1954)
• The Human Comedy by William Saroyan (1954)
• Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (1972)
• The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (2003)
• Works by Alberto Moravia and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Translations of Daneshvar's works

• In English, Savushun' has been translated by M. R. Ghanoonparvar (1990) and, under the title A Persian Requiem, by Roxane Zand (1992).
• Daneshvar's Playhouse, a collection of short stories that includes "The Loss of Jalal", is translated and arranged by Maryam Mafi (1989).
• Sutra and Other Stories, a collection of short stories (1994).
• Translation into Spanish: El bazar Vakil, Grupo Editorial Norma, Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia, 1992. Work by Hernardo Valencia Goekel, from the English version called Daneshvar's Playhouse (1989).
• Translation into German: Drama der Trauer - Savushun. Glaré Verlag, Frankfurt/Main 1997.
• In India, Savushun is translated into Malayalam by S.A.Qudsi.
• In Norway: "En familie fra Shiraz" translated into Norwegian by N. Zandjani. Gyldendal Norsk forlag. Oslo 2007.
• Also Japanese, Russian, Chinese, and Turkish.