Mahvash

Mahvash (née Akram, Persian: مهوش), (1920-1961), also known as Banu Mahvash (English: Lady Mahvash), Ma'sumeh Azizi Borujerdi, and Akram Ābgūshtī, was a singer, dancer, film actress and stage performer. She came from a poor family and was lauded as a singer (performer) of the people in the 1950s.

Mahvash was born in Borujerd, Iran to a poor family, when Mahvash was a baby the family came to Tehran. At an early age, Mahvash lost her mother and became a prostitute growing up in the brothels of Tehran, Iran. The brothels were her earliest stage; and from there, she went on to perform in Tehran’s cabarets and cafes and drew large support from the working people. She performed risque songs in the cabarets, on the radio and in movies. She gained the admiration of the masses’ by articulating in her songs the problems, difficulties, and frustrations of the common people, struggles which she knew very well. Her most famous songs involved a call and response style singing with her male audience.

She published a book in 1957 which she termed an "autobiography" which was entitled Secrets of Sexual Fulfillment (Persian: Raz-e Kamyabi-ye Jensi). This book was more of a sex manual had pictures of her in a bathing suit and was published and widely distributed despite being prosecuted for the book in June 1960. It seems that Mahvash’s ability to speak to the marginalized majority absolved her of her forays into prostitution and other publicly indecent behavior.

When Mahvash died in a car accident in 1961, her public funeral went down in Iran’s history as the largest of its day, with thousands of Iranians on the streets to mark her passing. Iranian religious authorities were unwilling to accept burying her in a Muslim cemetery because as an entertainer she was considered "unclean" and "unchaste", however when the large amount of mourners celebrated her passing they relented.

She is buried in the Ibn Babawayh Cemetery in Tehran.

Acting

• 1956, The Sun Shines, with director Sardar Saker
• 1956, Layla and Majnun (Persian: Leyli va Majnun), with director Ali-Mohammad Nourbakhsh
• 1959, Daughter of Isfahan
• 1959, Two Brides for Three Brothers (Persian: Do arus baraye se baradar), with director Reza Abdi
• 1961, What's the Difference (Persian: Ki Be Kiyeh), with director Reza Karimi

Singing

• 1962, The Lost Flower, (also featured dancing) with director Abbas Shabaviz

• ^ "Mahvash". Soureh Cinema. SourehCinema.com. 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2014.