Simin Daneshvar employer University of Tehran
Literary career
Daneshvar started her literary life in 1935, when she was in the eighth grade. In 1948, when she was 27, she published Atash-e khamoosh (Quenched Fire). It was the first collection of short stories published by a woman in Iran, and as such gave her a measure of fame, but in later years Daneshvar refused to republish the work because she was embarrassed by the juvenile quality of the writing. Daneshvar continued studying at the university. Her Ph.D. dissertation, "Beauty as Treated in Persian Literature," was approved in 1949 under the supervision of Professor Badiozzaman Forouzanfar. In 1950, Daneshvar married the well-known Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad. Simin’s sister (Victoria Daneshvar) said: we have gone to Isfahan and when we have decided to get back to Tehran, there was a man, he asked my sister to sit on his side. So Miss Simin sat next to him. The next morning, I saw my sister who was getting ready to go out. I have decided to go out too. When I opened the door, I saw Mr. Al-Ahmad. They got married on the ninth day of their visit. For the wedding, they invited all of the writers, even Sadegh Hedayat. They rented a house and started living there. In 1952, she traveled to the United States as a Fulbright Fellow working on creative writing at Stanford University with Wallace Stegner. While there, she wrote in English and published two short stories. When she returned to Iran, she joined the faculty at University of Tehran.She had to translate many books in order to support her household, often was earning more than Jalal. In 1961, she published "Shahri chun behesht" (A city like paradise), twelve years after her first short story collection. In 1963, she attended the Harvard University International Summer Session, a seminar of 40 members from around the world. In 1968, she became the chairwoman of the Iranian Writers Union. In 1969, her novel, Suvashun, was published. Her husband died that same year, in their summer home on the Caspian Sea.
Daneshvar and Al-e-Ahmad were unable to have children, which was a topic that Jalal Al-e-Ahmad wrote about in several of his works. Daneshvar continued teaching as an  associate professor in the university, later becoming the chair of the Department of Art History and Archaeology, from the 1970s until her retirement in 1981.
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