Tragedy and Defiance English 2024

Three countries. Three languages. Three cultures. Three backgrounds. Sylvia Plath, Forugh Farrokhzad, and Perveen Shakir were born in cities thousands of miles apart. Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.; Farrokhzad in Tehran, Iran, and Shakir in Karachi, Pakistan. Even though all three were born and died in the twentieth century, they had a total overlap of only eleven years, from Shakir’s birth in 1952 to Plath’s death in 1963. Perveen Shakir was very much informed and aware of Forugh Farrokhzad and her poetry, which greatly appealed to her because of its forceful challenge to her conservative, patriarchal society. Shakir had even dedicated a poem to Farrokhzad. However, the two had never met, even though both traveled outside their countries from time to time.