The Iran and Tajikistan Friendship Association in Tehran hosted a cultural delegation from Tajikistan’s city of Khojand, on Sunday.
Public relations director of the association Salalah Haghi said, “following President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Tajikistan and as proposed by his Tajik counterpart Emomalii Rahmon, a number of Tajik officials along with the well-known Tajik poet Farzaneh Khojandi are visiting Iran,” MNA reported.
Khojandi writes in Tajik language (a variety of modern Persian). Born in Khojand, the capital of Tajikistan’s Sughd Province in 1964, Farzaneh is widely regarded as the most exciting woman poet writing in Persian today and has a huge following in Iran and Afghanistan as well as Tajikistan, where she is regarded as the country’s foremost living writer. Her frequently playful and witty poetry draws on the rich tradition of Persian literature in an often subversive and humorous way. She has published many volumes of poetry, and her works have been translated in English as well.
The delegation attended a congress titled ‘Kamal, Unequalled in Khojand’ at Tehran’s Andisheh Cultural Center on Sunday before traveling to Tabriz to take part in a program held by the Iranian ambassador to Tajikistan. There on November 18 they will visit the tomb of Kamal Khojandi, the 14th century Persian poet. They will “take a little soil from the tomb” to Tajikistan to establish a symbolic tomb for him there.
Romantic Poets
Born in Khojand, the great poet lived in Tabriz and died in 1400 CE. He is counted among the romantic greats of the 14th century, like Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, Khwaju Kermani and Hafez. He was also a contemporary of Hafez. His tomb is located in the Tomb of Two Kamals in Tabriz, besides the tomb of Kamaleddin Behzad. The busts of the two Kamals, Khojandi and Behzad, are nearby.
On Wednesday, (Nov 19), the delegation will visit the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad and also visit the tomb of Ferdowsi, the great Persian poet.
While in Tabriz and Mashhad, the group will have meetings with various cultural officials and figures. On Thursday, they will return to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.
