This is the story of a woman you’ve probably never heard. A 12th-century rebel Persian poet who refused to marry and wrote poetry about love and desire. Mahsati Ganjavi drank wine in public, attended mixed feasts, and invented a genre of poetry literally called shahrashub — “city-disturbers.” She was court poetess to the last great Seljuk king of Khorasan. Banished from her city for a scandalous love affair. And later, historians tried to quietly marry her off to legitimise her voice and protect her from being read as socially transgressive. Some women are just too loud to erase. #history #women #poetry #literature #persian