Mina Assadi
Mina Assadi (; born March 12, 1943) is an Iranian-born poet, author, journalist and songwriter who lives in exile in Stockholm, Sweden.

Author
She is known for writing about controversial and provocative subjects, especially when she describes the fight against the Iranian government. In 2007 she wrote the poem called "Pimps" (Djakesha). It caused a lot of discussion for being too vulgar. The poem is about those who live in Iran and in exile who have forgot the struggle. She wrote her debut book, a collection of poems named "Minas Gift" (Armanghane Mina), at the age of 18. Thereafter she worked as a journalist for several well-known Iranian magazines, for example Kayhan. She has written 14 books in total, the book "Who throws rocks" (Che kasi sang miandazad) attracting most attention.

Songwriter
Assadi has also written songs for Iranian singers like Ebi ("Halah"), Dariush ("Zendegi jek basie" and "Ahay javoon"), Hayedeh ("Onkeh jek rosi barajeh man khoda bod"), Giti ("Oje parvaz"), Ramesh ("To aftabi, to baroni") and Nooshafarin ("Koh he ghavei") and Afshin ("delam az ru nemire) to name a few. She has been compared to Persian poets Forough Farrokhzad, Simin Behbahani (who also is a Hellman/Hammet Grant winner) and Parvin E'tesami and Swedish poets Karl Vennberg and Edith Södergran.

Awards
In the year of 1996, she won the Hellman/Hammett Grant from the Human Rights Watch of New York City, U.S.

References

Sources
 R M Chopra, "Eminent Poetesses of Persian", Iran Society, Kolkata, 2010.

External links

hrw.org

1943 births
Living people
Persian-language women poets
Persian-language poets
People from Sari, Iran
Iranian emigrants to Sweden
Iranian songwriters
21st-century Iranian poets
21st-century Iranian short story writers
Iranian women poets
Iranian essayists
Iranian journalists
Iranian women journalists
Iranian women short story writers
Iranian women novelists
Iranian novelists
Iranian women essayists
21st-century essayists 
20th-century Iranian women writers
20th-century Iranian writers
21st-century Iranian women writers
21st-century Iranian writers