They called it “Paradise,” their beautiful home just outside old Tehran, and nurtured there a close bond of mutual love and respect for intellectual freedom. It was a magnet for leading thinkers and activists, who visited regularly for conversation with their best living poet and tireless champion of democracy, human rights, and women’s empowerment — Malek o’Shoara Bahar. Then one morning the children watched in horror as police dragged him away . . .

Intimate and emotionally engaging, this powerful memoir introduces Americans to the high-profile Iranian cultural hero Malek o’Shoara Bahar — whose freedom poem Morghe Sahar (“Bird of Dawn”) is sung regularly with great passion at rallies for human rights and the empowerment of women throughout Iran.  Bahar (1882–1951) tuned his political idealism and vast poetic gifts to Iranian’s deepest feelings, championing democracy, freedom, and social justice — for which Reza Shah rewarded him with regular prison stays and the attempted ostracization of himself and his family.  He is revered internationally by progressive Iranians and celebrated as Iran’s best poet of the 20th century, many say of the past 500 years.

 Bahar’s beloved daughter begins with moving reminiscences of her childhood and youth with him in Iran and later in Switzerland, replete with the charms and sensory delights of Tehran in the 1930s and 1940s, and punctuates the story with dozens of Bahar’s poems as they are written. Then we see Parveneh carry his spirit forward into her own work as a progressive activist in the USA — setting an inspiring example not only for Iranian women but for women throughout the world.

“This is the story of a woman made strong by the responsibilities heaped upon her from an early age. Sustained by the powerful spirit of her father, Malek o'Shoara, a great poet and voice of the early democracy movement in Iran, and determined to free herself from oppression through education and hard work, Parvaneh emerges from these pages as a role model for women everywhere who struggle to be heard. Late in life she discovered in herself a writer, and became one of the rings in a chain of liberated Iranian women who speak the truth to a world ready to listen.” —Shahrnush Parsipur, author of Women Without Men (made into a feature-length film directed by Shirin Neshat) and Touba and the Meaning of the Night

“A touching evocation of a man, a great poet, a powerful political figure — all in 20th century Iran — as told by his loving daughter. You will learn a lot in this book about Iran and about poetry and about women. You will be deeply moved by what you read.” —Marvin Zonis, Professor Emeritus, Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago and author of Risk Rules, The Kimchi Matters, Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, and The Political Elite of Iran

“An absorbing memoir of an ongoing rich life that spanned much of the 20th century and is freshly relevant today — as thousands of Iranians rally in the streets for freedom, singing the anthems of the author’s father, Malek o’Shoara Bahar.” —Barbara Meade, co-founder and former owner, Politics and Prose bookstore

“Malek o’Shoara Bahar was the enlightened cultural father of all Iranians who lived after him. The Poet's Daughter reveals untold minutia about the hardships that Iran's most prominent poet and literary scholar of the twentieth century had to endure in his pursuit of democracy for his country. I highly recommend it to all readers.” —Masoud Askari Sarvestani, PhD, editor, Rahavard Persian Journal

"The Poet's Daughter is an engrossing coming-of-age tale of a Persian girl torn between devotion to her father — Bahar, the last icon of classical Persian poetry — and her own relentless desire to fashion for herself an identity as an independent, assertive modern woman. It moves seamlessly from the starchy solemnities of a traditional arranged marriage in Tehran, to an androgynous man twice her age, to the liberating pathos of marching behind Martin Luther King in Alabama. The beguiling simple elegance of the narrative never shies away from the harsh and heroic realities of the story." —Abbas Milani, Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, author of The Shah

From Library Journal, September 15, 2011

Bahar, Parvaneh with Joan Aghevli. The Poet’s Daughter: Malek o’Shoara Bahar of Iran and the Immortal Song of Freedom. Larson.
Nov. 2011. ISBN 9781936012572. $22.95. AUTOBIOG

The author is the daughter of perhaps the most distinguished Iranian poet of the 20th century, Mohammad Taqi Bahar (1884–1951), also known as Malek o’ Sho’ara Bahar (King of Poets). Because of the enormous importance of poetry in Persian culture and her father’s unique place in its preservation, creation, and innovation, Bahar’s account of her family life is of value both to students of Persian and to the country’s history. The family picture that she evokes here is one of intimacy shaped by a background of political autocracy under the late Shah’s father, Reza Shah Pahlavi. What could such a regime think of an outspoken democrat who insisted on the equality of women and enjoyed alcohol? The book represents the testimony of the author’s own remarkable life. Following her father’s exile and imprisonment under Reza Shah and his tubercular death in Switzerland, Bahar traveled to the United States — over 50 years ago — for university studies, a new life, and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Her return to Iran after the fall of the Shah is dramatically rendered. VERDICT: This well-written combination biography and memoir will be of particular interest to students of Iranian history but should also appeal to general readers of nonfiction. —Zachary T. Irwin, Penn State Univ.—Erie

Click here to see a PDF of the grounds and layout of the Bahar home in Tehran, Iran (drawn by Hugh Bahar)

Parvaneh Bahar is the daughter of Malek o’Shoara Bahar, one of Iran’s greatest poets. Born in Iran, she came to the United States in 1953. She lives in Studio City, California, and has a son and a daughter.
Joan Aghevli was born in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and has lived in Washington, D.C. since 1972. She has two daughters and a granddaughter.