In a month-long act of resistance, poets remind us that poetry can push back against forces that marginalize voices, erase stories, and impose control over how we live and imagine.
An interview with poet Bänoo Zan
ALL LIT UP: How would you describe Woman Life Freedom to someone picking it up for the first time?
BÄNOO ZAN: This is an exceptional book of its kind in its scope and vision. It is an international poetry anthology with contributors from four continents. If you like poetry or are an activist, if you are committed to women’s rights and human rights, if you think the mainstream poetry evades addressing urgent issues of our time, Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution is the book for you. It is a collection of rousing political poetry and a call to action and introspection. This book aims at improving the world. It follows the trajectory of the Woman Life Freedom movement in compelling poetic expression.
ALU: How do you see poetry as an act of resistance?
BÄNOO: Poetry is the best expression of resistance. It is the foremost literary genre involved in social justice movements. Poetry is the conscience of the community and the essence of literature. It is harder to lie in poetry than it is to commit untruth in prose. No other literary genre has been able to replace poetry in resistance against oppression.
In countries with long histories of political struggle like Iran, poetry plays a pivotal role in connecting generations of activists. Poetry of resistance is the manifestation of culture in politics.
ALU: What does poetry allow you to say or refuse that other forms don’t?
BÄNOO: Poetry allows me to stay fully human. It is the oldest literary form in many parts of the world. Poetry transcends ideology. It allows me, and requires of me, to tell the truth. It is also a conduit to self-knowledge because it springs from unfathomable depths within. My poetry knows me better than I know myself. It reveals me to me in unexpected ways and helps me reconcile with myself. It reflects the past and present in intimate ways and predicts the future more clearly than I ever can. It is the revolutionary and the prophet, the worshipper and the heretic, the optimist and the pessimist, the peacemaker and the rabblerouser all in one.
While poetry may tell stories, it very often transcends stories. Poetry is empowering because it does not reduce humans to their stories. The active imagination involved in the act of reading (or listening to) poetry invites humans to be authors of their own stories.
ALU: Is there a line (in your own or someone else’s work) that you return to?
BÄNOO: Nowadays while Iran is going through one of the darkest moments in its history in the aftermath of the January 8-9, 2026 massacres and while I am deeply grieving the tens of thousands of lives lost, I frequently return to the words of Aref Qazvini:
از خون جوانان وطن لاله دمیده
از ماتم سرو قدشان سرو خمیده
در سایه ی گل بلبل از این غصه خزیده
گل نیز چو من درغمشان جامه دریده
Here is my translation into English:
Tulips have bloomed from the blood of the youths of our land
Lamenting those cypresses, Cypress can no longer stand
A mourning nightingale creeps under Rose’s shadow
And Rose, like me, has torn her robe in sorrow1
1 https://poetryinvoice.ca/read/poems/tulips-bloom-youths-blood
ALU: What role does community—readers, poets, teachers—play in your writing?
BÄNOO: Writing is not merely an exercise in wit: it is a conversation with the world. A conversation cannot exist in a vacuum. It involves mutual listening and sharing. While it is an exchange, it is by no means a transaction. Everyone who is involved in the production and consumption of poetry plays a role in my writing, and so does everyone who censors it or limits its scope.
For me, a professional writer is not a writer who writes for payment or rewards. A professional writer is one who changes the world. The way a writer changes the world is through deep engagement with it. Poetry is an ongoing conversation that changes the world, the poet, the world of the poet, and the poet in the world.
ALU: How do you sustain a practice of writing poetry in politically or personally challenging times?
BÄNOO: I come from Iran, a country in the Middle East. Iran is a country where poetry is the foremost literary genre and it is also one of the most politically volatile countries in the world. And, as a woman, and now an immigrant, personal challenges are part of the package. If I wait for a less challenging time to write, I may never write. My writing is inspired, informed, and invigorated by challenge. I call myself a war correspondent in verse.
Feminists argue that the personal is political. And I am a feminist. But as someone who grew up in a totalitarian regime, the political is also deeply personal to me. I do not see much of a difference between the two. And that, I suppose, is what makes me a political poet.
Read “URGENT REPORT“
from Woman Life Freedom
URGENT REPORT1
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH
Urgent report to
the people of Iran
The Islamic Republic Officials
Chief Judiciary, Ministry of Intelligence, and
The Commander-in-Chief
I hereby inform you that
MY SON HOSSEIN IS UNDER TORTURE
I have just received A PHONE CALL
FROM AN UNKNOWN NUMBER
that they are taking Hossein
to the torture chamber in Evin Prison
to extract forced confessions from him
HOSSEIN IS VOMITING BLOOD
He is in very critical condition
NO ONE IN IRAN IS PAYING ATTENTION
Who is responsible?
Chief Judiciary,
I sent letters to you
IS TORTURE LEGAL IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC?
Is torture legal in the constitution?
Is confession under torture acceptable to the courts?
THEY ARE KILLING HOSSEIN AS WE SPEAK
HOSSEIN IS UNDER TORTURE
Chief Judiciary, Your Honour,
You allow torture under your command
You cannot preside over the Department of Justice
Your officials are killing my son
THE GATE TO HUMAN RIGHTS IS CLOSED IN IRAN
In the Islamic Republic of Iran
the officials are not answerable
They are appointed to kill
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN IRAN,
IS THIS SOCIAL JUSTICE?
IS THIS RELIGION?
Hossein is now under torture
by the intelligence
I HOPE YOU COME TO BELIEVE IN GOD
NONE OF YOU BELIEVE IN GOD
If you did, you wouldn’t do this
I ask
all humans
all the world
I ask
all the countries
that respect human rights
I ask the United Nations,
The International Court of Justice in Hague
and everyone in a position of influence—
to STOP THEM FROM KILLING MY SON
Hossein is under torture
If anything happens to Hossein
YOU ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE
ALL OF YOU—
- The poem is based on a video posted to the Instagram account of Ahmad Ronaghi, the elderly father of the Iranian blogger and political dissident Hossein Ronaghi, on October 14, 2022. ↩︎
Reprinted with permission from Guernica Editions.
Watch Bänoo read from Woman Life Freedom
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Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, and curator, with numerous published pieces and books including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Canada’s most diverse and brave poetry open mic series (inception 2012). It bridges the gap between poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, poetic styles, voices, and visions. Bänoo, with Cy Strom, is the co-editor of the anthology: Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution. She was given Life Membership in the League of Canadian Poets in 2024 and is the recipient of the 2025 Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award.
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Thanks to Bänoo for answering our questions, and to Guernica Editions for the text of “Urgent Report” from Woman Life Freedom, which is available to order now (and get 15% off + FREE shipping Canada-wide with the code POETSRESIST until April 30!).
Follow our NPM series all month long to discover new poetry or connect with old favourites, and visit our poetry shop here.
