Heyran Donboli

Heyran Donboli was an Iranian female poet who composed works in Persian, as well as some in Azerbaijani Turkic. Born between 1785–1790, she was a member of the Turkic-speaking Kurdish Donboli tribe in the Azerbaijan region. Her exact name and birthplace remain uncertain, with suggestions including Nakhchivan, Tabriz and Urmia. Following the Iranian cession of Nakhchivan to Russia in 1813, she and her family moved south of the Aras River, settling in the village of Khaneqah Sorkh. Heyran's poetry, characterized by its straightforward language and emotional expression of women's experiences, was a rarity in Qajar Iran, where literacy was low and women's public roles were limited in a male dominated society. She was a proponent of the Bazgasht-e adabi literary movement, advocating a return to classical Persian styles.