Guity Novin - Life and Work

Life and Work

Guity Novin was born in an educated middle-class family in Kermanshah.Her family were originally from the northern Iranian city of Bandar Anzali.Her father Abdol-Rahman Navran was the only son of Abodl-Rahim, a ship owner and sea merchant in the northern Iranian port of Anzali (Bandar-e Anzali) in the Caspian Sea. He traded between ports of Baku, Lankaran and Astara in Azerbaijan . In the early 20th century the Caucasian region became a major geostrategic center and one of the important theaters of World War I. After the October Bolshevist coup and civil war in the former czarist Russia, the Red Army conquered Baku in 1918, the navy of the White Army took refuge in the Anzali Port, which was under the control of British forces. The Red Navy conquered the port of Anzali in 1921 and confiscated Abdol-Rahim's ships. These events financially ruined Abdol-Rahim as he soon lost his capital and watched his business collapse. Seeing no prospects of recovery, the young desperate businessman committed suicide. His young son Abdol-Rahman was raised by his Navran grandparents, and was separated from his young mother, who soon was remarried and gave birth to another son Djavad Bani-Yaghub. After finishing high school, sought independence Abdol-Rahman found a job in order to be independent. He was offered a post at the Iran Customs, and was sent to work at its branch office in Ghasr-e Shirin, a border post with Iraq. Abdol-Rahman who learned to play accordion, spent his weekends at Kermanshah, where he fell in love with a sister of one his colleagues, a local beauty by the name Molook Kashefi. Soon after they met, he proposed and she accepted. Together they had four children, Guity, who was the eldest, Kamran, her brother, and her two younger sisters Jaleh, and Jila. Meanwhile, Abdol-Rahman brought his mother and his younger brother to live with him. His mother never left him again.