Iranian activist, poet Behbahani dies at 87

TEHRAN, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist, died Tuesday in Tehran at age 87.

She was regarded as Iran's most influential poet and an outspoken writer on social issues, particularly as they affected writers and women in her country. A member of the Iran Writer's Association, a group viewed with suspicion by the government, and a vocal critic of Iran's government, she often encountered the disdain of officials but was beloved by readers.

Some of her poetry was turned into popular music in Iran, while other works were censored and suppressed. In 2009, Behbahani won the 2009 Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Freedom, on behalf of women's rights activists in Iran, a country Behbahani refused to leave.

She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize and famously said, of writers, at a ceremony in her honor:

"We will be truly honored the day when no writer is in jail, no student is under arrest, when journalists are free and their pens are free."