It was during this time that he encountered Ghazaleh Alizadeh, a literature student from a well-off northern Iranian family. Ghazaleh, who would later gain fame as a novelist and poet herself, embodied a different kind of intellectualism: fiercely independent, rooted in literary modernism, and critical of both traditionalism and ideological rigidity. The two met at Tehran University despite studying in separate faculties. The accounts of their relationship vary—some speak of a passionate intellectual and emotional entanglement, while others suggest a more one-sided longing on the part of Avini. Regardless of its true emotional content, their interaction has since become emblematic of the many contradictions and ideological ruptures that would define Iranian culture in the decades to come.
Morteza Avini’s transformation from Kamran to Seyyed Morteza is, in many ways, a story of revolution—both personal and national. Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, he abandoned his Western-influenced past and embraced the Islamic values of the new regime. It is in this radical change that the distance between him and Ghazaleh becomes most pronounced. Where she continued her path in literary circles that often stood in opposition to the state, Avini became a leading figure in the cultural propaganda of the Islamic Republic.
