[5][6] Her grandfather Mirza Ebrahim Khan Mostawfi Etesam-al-Molk was originally from Ashtiyan, but moved to Tabriz and was appointed financial controller of the province of Azerbaijan by the Qajar administration.

Her family moved to Tehran early in her life, and in addition to formal schooling, she obtained a solid understanding of Arabic and classical Persian literature from her father.

[9] For her graduation she wrote the poem, A Twig of a Wish (1924) about the struggles facing Iranian women, their lack of opportunities, and the need for their education.

[10] On July 10, 1934, she was married to a cousin of her father, Fazlollah E'tesami, and they moved to the city of Kermanshah.

[11] But the marriage only lasted for ten weeks and they separated due to differences of interests and personality and she returned to Tehran.

[12] In 1936, E'tesami was awarded by Reza Shah Pahlavi the third-degree Iran Medal of Art and Culture, but she declined.

Parvin never spoke about this unsuccessful marriage until the end of her life, and only composed a poem on the subject, the first three verses of which begin with these lines (translated from Farsi):[15]Oh flower, in the company of the garden, what did you see?

[18][better source needed] According to Professor Heshmat Moayyad, her Safar-e ashk (Journey of a tear) counts among the finest lyrics ever written in Persian.

Another form of poetry, the monazara (debate), claims the largest portions of E'tesami's Divan.

She composed approximately sixty-five poems in the style of monazara and seventy-five anecdotes, fables, and allegories.

According to Moayyad: "Parvin wrote about men and women of different social backgrounds, a wide-ranging array of animals, birds, flowers, trees, cosmic and natural elements, objects of daily life, abstract concepts, all personified and symbolizing her wealth of ideas.

Likewise, in these debates she eloquently expresses her basic thoughts about life and death, social justice, ethics, education, and the supreme importance of knowledge".

[2][19] Parvin E'tesami began writing poetry from a young age; her first published works appeared in the Iranian magazine Bahrain the early 1920s, when she was just a teenager.

[23] Some couplets of the poem are translated from Farsi below:[24]This dark earth is now her pillow, the star of the literary sky, Parvin [The Pleiades].