Born on July 20, 1927 in Iran’s capital Tehran, Simin was the daughter of Abbas Khalili, poet, writer and editor of Eghdam newspaper, and Fakhr-e Ozma Arghun who was a progressive woman of her time who was master at Arabic and French languages.
Behbahani began to write poems at the age of 14 and was inspired by the prominent poet Parvin Etesami who was also a well-known Iranian woman. She studied law in Tehran University and worked with the newspapers Omid Iran, Parvaz and Tehran Mosavvar.
Her poetry was welcomed by other poets and critiques as well as ordinary people because of its fluency and pure expression. She gradually put old Persian poetry traditions aside and tried to make innovation in her works.
The great poet published eight poetry books with 600 poems in Ghazal style in total as well as two non-poetry books.
She was had also a global fame and received a number of awards in different countries and was nominated for the Noble Prize in literature in 1999 and 2002. Here poetry has been translated into several languages, including English, German and French.
Behbahani’s poetry covers such themes as love, social matters, homeland, natural disasters, war, revolution, poverty and women’s rights. Her poems have been used by many singers to compose popular songs.
Behbahani was hospitalized on August 6, 2014 because of pulmonary heart disease at the age of 87. She remained in coma for nearly two weeks until she died in August 19, 2014 in Tehran. Her body was buried at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in south Tehran while thousands of people attended her funeral.
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