Mohammad Zohari (Persian: محمد زهری) (1926 - 1995) Iranian Poet & Writer
He was born in Tonekabon a city in north of Iran. As the first son of Abdollah Zohari Khalatbary an activist in Iranian Constitutional Revolution who had received the honorific title of “Motamed-ol-Soltan Zaygham-ol-Mamalek" [1] from Ahmad Shah Qajar, in 1931 due to his father's disagreement with Reza Shah Pahlavi the family was exiled to Malayer and later to Shiraz.[2] There he started his writing carrier in early teenage by writing articles and short stories for Toffan Magazine. After the end of Second World War the family returned to Tehran there Zohari studied Persian literature at Tehran University and later achieved a PhD in literature from the same university. After graduation Zohari worked as high school/University teacher and journalist for Ferdowsi Magazine, Fokahi and some others for some years before he became a government employee and worked in various positions such as Head of Media and PR for Ministry of Education and Vice Director of National Library of Iran.[3][4]
Zohari in his work got inspiration from all his surrounding and most of his poems were about his social environment or love, however most published one was the one about the social circumstances. In 1953 he meet Nima Yooshij for the first time which ended up to many more visits in the following years to discuss poetry and modern literature that many believes influenced Zohari’s work and the modern poetry in Iran in general from many aspects.[3]
In 1977 Zohari travelled to Paris and stayed until 1979 when he returned to Iran, however due to some of his socialistic thought in 1982, three years after the Iranian Revolution he was again forced to leave Iran which he moved to Paris this time. The experience to leave his home by force for the second time, once when he was a child and once as an adult was very difficult for Zohari which caused his decision to do not write anymore. Due to his enormous love for Iran Zohari returned to Tehran in 1992, but during some legal straggle he died of heart attack in 1995.[3]
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Intellectual movements in Iran