# List of Iranian women writers

This is a list of women writers who were born in Iran or whose writings are closely associated with that country.

## A

* Masoumeh Abad (born 1962), activist, politician, and non-fiction author
* Janet Afary (born 1960), feminist, historian, non-fiction writer
* Mahnaz Afkhami (born 1941), feminist, non-fiction writer, now in the United States
* Pegah Ahmadi (born 1974), poet, critic, translator
* Mahshid Amirshahi (born 1937), novelist, short story writer, critic, journalist, translator
* Jaleh Amouzgar (born 1939), linguist, anthropologist, academic
* Akram Monfared Arya (born 1946), pilot, poet, short story writer, artist, now living in Sweden, writes in Persian, Swedish and English
* Lady Amin (1886–1983), mystic, author of works on Islamic sciences
* Mahshid Amirshahi (born 1937), novelist, short story writer, critic, journalist, translator
* Noushafarin Ansari (born 1939), librarian, educator, journalist
* Mastoureh Ardalan (1805–1848), Kurdish poet, philosopher, historian
* Neda Aria, (born 1981), Transgressive Fiction writer and researcher
* Mina Assadi (born 1943), poet, journalist, living in Sweden
* Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi (c.1858–1921), feminist, literary historian
* Ghazaleh Alizadeh (born 1947), writer, poet

## B

* Rakhshan Bani-E'temad (born 1954), film director, screenwriter
* Najmieh Batmanglij (born 1957), Iranian-American cookbook writer
* Simin Behbahani (1927–2014), acclaimed poet
* Niloofar Beyzaie (born 1967), playwright, theatre director, living in German
* Taraneh Boroumand playwright, writer, poet, translator
* Mona Borzouei, (born 1984), poet and songwriter

## D

* Simin Daneshvar (1921–2012), acclaimed early female novelist, short story writer, translator, educator
* Soraya Darabi (born 1955), journalist, trade union activist
* Sahar Delijani (born 1983), widely translated novelist, author of Children of the Jacaranda Tree, living between the United States and Italy
* Sediqeh Dowlatabadi (1882–1961), feminist, journalist
* Firoozeh Dumas (born 1965), Iranian-American memoirist, humorous writer, author of Funny in Farsi

## E

* Shirin Ebadi (born 1947), Nobel peace prize winner, human rights activist, non-fiction writer
* Amanda Enayati (born 1967), columnist, communication strategist
* Camelia Entekhabifard (born 1973), poet, journalist, and memoirist, living in the United States
* Parvin E'tesami (1907–1941), acclaimed classical poet, essayist
* Mansoureh Ettehadieh (graduated 1956), historian, educator, non-fiction writer, novelist
* Tahereh Eybod (born 1963), author, researcher, instructor, critic, and journalist.

## F

* Forough Farrokhzad (1935–1967), influential poet, film director, poetry translated into several languages including English
* Pooran Farrokhzad, since the 1990s: poet, playwright, encyclopedist
* Nazila Fathi (born 1970), author and Iranian correspondent for The New York Times

## G

* Zarah Ghahramani (born 1981), Iranian-born Australian memoirist, author of My Life as a Traitor
* Shusha Guppy (1935–2008), singer, memoirist, writer, critic, journal editor; she lived in London

## H

* Fattaneh Haj Seyed Javadi (born 1945), best selling novelist
* Roya Hakakian (born 1966), Iranian-American poet, journalist, memoirist, essayist, television producer
* Maryam Heydarzadeh (born 1977), poet, lyricist
* Maryam Hooleh (born 1978), poet, novelist, filmmaker

## J

* Rosa Jamali (born 1977), poet, playwright, translator
* Hamideh Jahangiri (born 1981), Author, translator, Academic,

## K

* Sheema Kalbasi (born 1972), widely translated poet, human rights activist, living in the United States
* Mehrangiz Kar (born 1944), women's rights activist, essayist, author of Crossing the Red Line
* Persis Karim (born 1962), literature scholar, author, and professor; director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University; lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
* Leila Kasra (1939–1989), poet, lyricist
* Fatemeh Keshavarz (born 1952), poet, educator, literary historian, living in the United States
* Porochista Khakpour (born 1978), Iranian-American novelist, essayist

## L

* Shahla Lahiji (born 1942), feminist, translator, publisher

## M

* Mahsati (c.1089–c.1159), early Persian poet writing in quatrains
* Marsha Mehran (1977–2014), widely translated novelist, author of Pomegranate Soup; she lived in Argentina, the United States, Australia and Ireland.
* Mozhgan Babamarandi is an eminent Iranian writer best known for children and young adult fiction, since 1996
* Farzaneh Milani, Iranian-American educator, since early 1990s: non-fiction writer, poet
* Azadeh Moaveni (born 1976), Iranian-American journalist, memoirist, author of Lipstick Jihad, now living in London
* Roza Montazemi (c.1921–2009), popular cookbook writer
* Minoo Moshiri, essayist, translator and journalist
* Granaz Moussavi (born 1976), Iranian-Australian poet, screenwriter, film director

## N

* Azar Nafisi (born 1955), feminist, memoirist, literary critic, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran
* Afsaneh Najmabadi (born 1946), Iranian-American historian, educator, literary historian, author of The Story of the Daughters of Quchan
* Marina Nemat (born 1965), memoirist

## O

* Ghazal Omid, memoirist, author of A True Odyssey of a Woman's Struggle in Islamic Iran Against Personal and Political Forces (2005)

## P

* Shahrnush Parsipur (born 1946), novelist, short story writer, children's writer, translator
* Zoya Pirzad (born 1952), Iranian-Armenian novelist, works translated into several languages

## S

* Leila Sadeghi (born 1977), writer
* Sepideh Shamlou (born 1968), writer
* Shadi Sadr (born 1974), lawyer, journalist, women's rights activist
* Nazi Safavi (born 1967), novelist, author of Hallway to Paradise
* Tahereh Saffarzadeh (born 1936), poet, non-fiction writer, translator, educator
* Parinoush Saniee, since 2003, novelist, author of the widely translated The Book of Fate
* Homa Sarshar, Iranian-American author, activist, feminist and journalist
* Marjane Satrapi (born 1969), Iranian-born French novelist, illustrator, children's writer
* Louisa Shafia, Iranian-American chef and cookbook writer
* Mahasti Shahrokhi (born 1956), novelist, poet
* Siba Shakib, novelist, filmmaker, author of the widely translated Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep (2002)
* Shahla Sherkat (born 1956), journalist, feminist writer, journal publisher
* Zandokht Shirazi (1900–1953), feminist, poet, educator

## T

* Táhirih, pseudonym of Fatimah Baraghani (c.1814–1852), poet, theologian
* Goli Taraghi (born 1939), novelist, short story writer
* Niloufar Talebi, memoirist, nonfiction writer, literary translator, multidisciplinary artist

## V

* Fariba Vafi (born 1963), novelist
* Lobat Vala (born 1930), poet, feminist, now living in London

## Y

* Chista Yasrebi (born 1968), writer, literary critic, translator, publisher
* Elham Yaghoubian, since the 1990s: novelist, living in the United States