This month’s “Read of the month” is on a subject that we in the West don’t hear much about, women and struggle in Iran. However, like everywhere else on the planet, in Iran that spark of freedom ever seeks to burst into flames. It is from our KM Collection T SOR-4-1-106 and is called Women And Struggle In Iran, enjoy:
This issue contains some poems by Forugh Farrokhzad. I particularly like this one, “I was born a girl”,
Forugh Farrokhzad, bom in Tehran, Iran (1935) is considered the outstanding contemporary feminist poet in Iran. She was also a filmmaker and critic. At the height of her creative career and her philosophical and ideological evolution, while approaching a revolutionary and socialist path, she was killed in an automobile accident (1967)
I was born a girl
So that I’d be given a doll and a broom
To sew the hem of men’s shirts with gold lace
And to sweep the dust from the house.
My brother is playing in the street.
He takes off with his bicycle.
And I remain in the comer of our house.
A Girl
My brother, in the winding streets,
By playing with the dirt and the pebbles,
Is experiencing life.
My experience does not pass beyond these walls.
I do not know the streets.
I was born a girl.
In the chapter of questions and search
My questions are left unanswered and
My search is futile.
I was born a girl
So that in the dawn of puberty
My frightful eyes.
Like the eyes of a restless deer,
Would give away my secret.
Was born a girl.