Iranian poet Simini Bahebahani passes away

               

 Iranian poet Simin Behbahani passed away in a hospital in Tehran on Tuesday, at age of 87.

Mrs Behbahani was suffering from respiratory and cardiac problems and she had been in state of coma for the past 13 days.

Behbahani who was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature started writing poetry at twelve and published her first poem at the age of fourteen.

In early March 2010, she was refused permission to leave the country. As she was about to board a plane to Paris, the Iranian regime prevented her from leaving the country and confiscated her passport.

A selection of her poems have been translated to English.