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Artworks
Soheila Sokhanvari
I Will Greet The Sun Again (Portrait of Pouran Shapoori) , 2023Egg tempera on calf VellumPainting Size:
16.7 x 13.6 cm
6 5/8 x 5 3/8 in
Framed Size:
40 x 30 cm
15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inCopyright The ArtistPouran was born Farhdokht Abbasi Taghany in 1934 in Tehran, Iran. She became one of Iran’s most famous pop stars and actors. She came from a wealthy and conservative family,...Pouran was born Farhdokht Abbasi Taghany in 1934 in Tehran, Iran. She became one of
Iran’s most famous pop stars and actors. She came from a wealthy and conservative family,
her aunt was a famous classic Iranian singer named Ezat Rohbakhsh (1908-1989) and her
sister was Mahin Oskouei (1929-2006), Iran's first female theatre director and first woman
to appear on stage. Despite coming from a performing artist family her childhood dreams of
being a singer conflicted with her family’s goals for her; she escaped an arranged marriage
by running away and embarked on a course to study music. Her fear of family reprisals led
her to perform under a series of assumed names throughout her career. Rising to fame on
Radio Tehran in the 1950s, she was initially known simply as ‘Anonymous Lady’. After she
married her music teacher Abbas Shapoori in 1951, she appeared as ‘Lady Shapoori’. He
helped her to a glittering career and supported her in making 5 films and 100 hit songs. With
a demure public persona – she sang but did not dance and in her acting roles she was chaste
– she was at home with both pop and classical Persian music styles. After seven years and
the birth of a son their marriage ended in divorce; and she became known as “Pouran”. She
later married Habib Roshanzadeh, a TV sports presenter, that resulted in two children but
sadly that marriage also ended in a divorce. At the time of the revolution in 1979 she was
travelling in the US with her children where she chose to remain. Her contemporaries in Iran
were forced to sign a letter of penitence and banned from their platforms.
In 1990, Suffering from kidney and breast cancer, she returned to Tehran to visit her family
and to continue her treatment. It is said that on her deathbed she had a visit from Abbas
Shapoori, they both cried and forgave each other. She died on 4 th Oct 1990.
This painting is titled after a poem by Iranian feminist Forough Farrokhzad. This hopeful
poem captures the spirit of Pouran, a woman who was strong in her determination and
spirit, standing defiantly and confidently in a lush garden as the golden sun shines on her.
After the revolution both Pouran and Farrokhzad’s (posthumously) art were banned by the
Islamic Republic of Iran. More importantly, the poem speaks to the courage of the
protestors in Iran since September 2022 after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini by the morality
police and reflects the hope of Iranian women who want to greet the sun again.
I Will Greet the Sun Again
I will greet the sun again
and the little river that once ran in me
and the clouds that were my ruminations
and the aching blooms of poplar trees,
my companions in those seasons of drought.
I will greet the crowd of crows again,
who brought me their rich perfumes,
gifts from gardens of the night,
and my mother who lived in the mirror
and whose shape was the shape of my own old age.
I will greet the earth again,
who in her lust to create me again,
fills her fiery belly with seeds of green.
I am coming, I am coming, I will come again,
with my long hair dripping the scent of dirt,
with my eyes inflicting the density of darkness,
with brambles I’ve picked from the far side of the wall.
I am coming, I am coming, I will come again,
and the doorway once more will be filled with love
and I’ll greet the lovers standing in the doorway,
and the little girl there
still standing in love.
Forough Farrokhzad
Translated from Persian by Paul Weinfield, © 2014Exhibitions
We Could Be Heroes..., Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge, UK, 5 October 2023 - 4 February 20242of 2