Maryam Firouz

Maryan Farman Farmaian
Maryam Farman Farmaian in the early 50's
Born	1914 Kermanshah, Persia
Died	23 March 2008 (aged 93–94) Tehran, Iran
Spouse	Abbassgholi Esfandiary Noureddin Kianouri
Dynasty	Qajar
Father	Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma
Mother	Batoul Khanoum

Maryam Firouz or Princess Maryam Farman Farmaian (1914 Kermanshah, Persia – 23 March 2008, Tehran, Iran) was a daughter of Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma and Batoul Khanoum. She founded the women's section of the Tudeh (communist) party of Iran.

She received a liberal education for the Persian women of her time, and attended university later in life while living in exile. She was a linguist, fluent in Persian, Arabic, French, Russian, German, and English. An independent thinker, she appreciated communist theory. 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 [as a woman] 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. She became known as Maryam Firouz in the political arena. She retained her legal name as Maryam Farman Farmaian with pride.

She first married General army Abbassgholi Esfandiary [son of Mohtashem Saltaneh] in a marriage arranged by her father. They had two daughters, Afsaneh and Afsar. They divorced on the death of her father. In 1949 Maryam married Noureddin Kianouri, a member and later general secretary of the Tudeh Party of Iran.

In cooperation with Noureddin Kianouri, Farman Farmaian established a women's division of the Tudeh Party. Following the attempted assassination of Mohammad Reza Shah on 4 February 1949, the Tudeh party was blamed and her husband was imputed to have been one of the masterminds of the operation. She and her husband were forced into exile in 1956. She started her life in exile in the USSR 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.