Mahnaz Badihian: Rebel Poet, Painter, Translator 3

Mahnaz Badihian is an Iranian poet and painter whose work reflects ideas of immigrants and exiles, women’s issues, poverty, struggles for justice and, of course, love.  An award-winning poet and author of two poetry collections,

and a recording of Rumi poems with her own translations with the poems read by Jack Hirshman. She is also the editor of an international anthology of poetry and art that spoke to Covid. She has also worked with Jack Hirschman to edit a poetry anthology, Saplings Arise: The Protest of the Pen, featuring the work of 30 Iranian poets for Iran and throughout the diaspora. She has and amazing web site, with poems, painting, videos, work in Farsi and much more. She also has an online international Magazine of Arts and Humanities. Unfortunately, while most can access her online sites, they are currently blocked in Iran.

dm: I met you as a poet and as a part of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade?  What pulled you to poetry and to the Brigade?

MB: I grew up in a family of many unpublished poets. My mother could recite Hafiz by heart. My grandfather, on the hand, would sing lines from the book of Kings from memory. I started writing poetry at the age of twelve. I still have the collection of my poems from those years.

In terms of the Brigade, I have to say it was by accident. While living in Marin County, they scheduled me to read in San Francisco. At the end of that event, a lovely poet from San Francisco, Virginia Barrett, came to me and said, “I enjoyed your poem. Would you like to attend our next Brigade meeting and see if you would like to join?” I attended the next meeting and decided to join.

dm: I also know you as a painter.  What drew you to painting?

I have no idea! I also used to draw with black ink from a very young age. In my late teen years, I took a few years of classes with a well-known teacher in my hometown Isfahan. From a very young age, I was drawn to colors in anything around me, mostly in nature. My parents owned a pomegranate, almond, and apple garden. Also, my father loved gardening with bright color flowers such as Yasmin or different color roses. All of these colors affected me. If you notice, my art is full of bright paints!

How do you choose, or do you choose at all which medium to use to define a certain idea or feeling?

MB: I paint the way I write my poems. The subject and the color come to me. There are some paintings that I worked on them for a long time because whatever I did was not pleasing to my eyes; on the other hand, there are pieces that I finished in a few days, and I loved them.

I encourage readers to use this link to see more of The Recycled Woman Series and read excerpts of her Recycled Woman poems. This is a lovely video of paintings by Mahnaz that overlays lines from “Recycled Woman” poems.

dm: You have a wide breadth of poetry in terms of subjects. Do you feel a certain responsibility in the kind of art you produce, especially given the recent uprisings which may in fact be a rising revolution led, as you have asserted, by women?

MB: I feel responsible. A long time ago, I started noticing the dire situation for women worldwide, especially in third-world countries. As it looks, it is a revolution going on in Iran. The death of an innocent 22-year-old Kurdish girl, Mahsa Amini, sparked anger in Iran because the people of Iran were fed up with the crimes committed by the Islamic regime. This is a revolution that women in Iran started. We can call it a renaissance by women for the freedom of men and women! This revolution is unique and will affect women worldwide, especially in the middle east.

dm: How does your reality as an Iranian woman who has now lived more years in the USA than in Iran affect your work?

MB: I can express myself and create in any way I like without being arrested and imprisoned for writing what I want. Although I have been amazed to see so many great minds, artists, and poets in Iran, many of whom are imprisoned.

dm: Is your work available in Iran?  If so, how, if not, why not?  

MB: I am known in Iran, but not widely. I have not been published yet because my work did not get permission from the government. Although the Plague 2020 anthology I published in 2020 is translated into Farsi in Iran, got permission, it has not yet been published. This book got authorization because it is an anthology, and I have only one poem!

dm: I love your website Magazine of Arts and Humanities.  In it you have a lovely essay on the public spa upon growing into womanhood. What are some other aspects of Iran that you miss? 

MB: I miss the people of Iran a lot. The culture. I miss my country as a whole. I still make Persian food, listen to Persian music, and have many Persian friends. But I consider myself belonging to no specific place but to the people in this world. I love people of any race and culture. And I think the masterpiece on this earth are human beings, and deeply saddened by all the crimes and killings human beings commit

dm: You also post a number of poems by yourself and others.  You have done most of the translations?  Is that a third art form where you work?  What are some of the challenges of translation?

Yes. I do the translations. A few times, I have asked native English-speaking poets to look at my translations and see how we can improve them. You know that I did a few works with poet Jack Hirschman.

dm: What are you working on now?  

 I am working on publishing my 9-year-old granddaughter’s “Story of Ice,” she wrote when she was eight. I am also working on my novel” Gohar.”

dm: Thank you, Mahnaz!