Maryam Firouz or Princess Maryam Farman Farmaian was a daughter of Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma and Batoul Khanoum.
Education
She received a liberal education for the Persian women of her time, and attended university later in life while living in exile. Later in life she said that the reason she chose to become a member of the Tudeh party was that when she decided to actively engage in the women"s rights movement, the only party who was willing to accept her and give her a chance to do something at that time was the Tudeh Party. Maryam chose to use the surname Firouz in her political struggles.
Her grandfather"s name.
Career
She founded the women"s section of the Tudeh (communist) party of Iran. She was a linguist, fluent in Persian, Arabic, French, Russian, German, and English. An independent thinker, she appreciated communist theory.
She retained her legal name as Maryam Farman Farmaian with pride.
They had two daughters, Afsaneh and Afsar. They divorced on the death of her father.
In cooperation with Noureddin Kianouri, Farman Farmaian established a women"s division of the Tudeh Party. She started her life in exile in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics and then lived in East Berlin, in the former German Democratic Republic.
During her years of exile she completed her university studies and later taught French in the universities of Leipzig and Berlin.
The couple returned to Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the deposition of the Shah. The Tudeh party was reinstituted with Noureddin Kianouri as General Secretary. In 1983, the Tudeh Party was again banned following accusations of espionage for the Soviet Union.
Noureddin Kianouri and Farman Farmaian were imprisoned.
Maryam Firouz spent all of her imprisonment in solitary confinement. Doctor Noureddin Kianouri died on 5 November 1999.
Maryam Farman Farmaian, a.k.a. Maryam Firouz, died in Tehran on March 23, 2008.
Politics
She became known as Maryam Firouz in the political arena. In 1949, Maryam married Noureddin Kianouri, a member and later general secretary of the Tudeh Party of Iran.
Membership
She was the only member of the Tudeh Party"s imprisoned leadership who did not make a forced confession on television at the time.