She was a controversial modernist poet and an iconoclast, writing from a female point of view
Forough Farrokhzad was born on January 5, 1935 in Tehran into a middle class the third of seven children. She attended public schools through the ninth grade, At age 15 she graduated from Junior High School and went on to study dressmaking and painting at Kamalolmolk Technical School. in 1951 at sixteen Forough married her cousin Parviz Shapour inspite of family objections to Parviz`s age. A year later her only son was born. Forough separated from Parviz Shapour in 1954 and relinquished her son to her ex-husband`s family in order to pursue her calling in poetry and independent life style.
1955 Forough`s first collection, titled Asir (The Captive), containing forty-four poems was published. And in September that year she suffered a nervous breakdown and was taken to a psychiatric clinic.
In July 1956 Forough left Iran for the first time on a nine-months trip to Europe. In this year her second volume of verse, containing twenty-five short lyrics, called Divar (The Wall), was published, dedicated to her former husband.
In 1958 Forough`s third collection Esian (Rebellion), appeared and securely established her as promising yet notorious poet. Forough`s relationship with the controversial writer and cinematographer Ebrahim Golestan began and remained important in the poet`s personal life until her death.
1962 she made a documentary movie about a leper`s colony, titled The House Is Black. The movie was acclaimed internationally and won several prizes.
In 1964 Forough`s fourth poetry collection, Tavallodi Digar (Another Birth), contained thirty-five poems which the poet had composed over a period of nearly six years was published.
In 1965 Forough`s fifth collection of verse called Let Us Believe In The Beginning Of The Cold Season is in print and was published after her death.
In 1963 UNESCO produced a thirty minutes movie about Forough. Also Bernardo Bertolucci came to Iran to Interview her and decided to produce a fifteen minutes movie about the poet`s life.
Forough was killed in a car crash in 1967. She was barely 32 years old.
