Reza Baraheni

Reza Baraheni (born 1935) is an exiled Iranian novelist, poet, critic and political activist.

Early life

Baraheni was born in Tabriz, Iran in 1935 and now lives in Canada where he is a visiting professor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Comparative Literature and past president of PEN Canada from June 2001-June 2003. He was also the Hart House Review's feature writer (poetry) for its' 2007 edition when the magazine decided to go with a theme on exiled writers/artists.

He is the author of more than fifty books in Persian language and English and his works have been translated into a dozen languages. Moreover, he has translated into Persian, works by Shakespeare, Kundera, Mandelstam, Andric, and Fanon.

His most famous work is "The Crowned Cannibals: Writings on Repression in Iran", which recounts his days in prison against the Shah of Iran.

Baraheni, the former Iranian political prisoner, is an ethnic Azeri and ardent supporter of Azari rights.

Political life

In 1973, he was arrested and imprisoned in Teheran and spent 102 days in solitary confinement. In 1982, he was expelled from the University of Tehran and deprived of the right to work. Baraheni was granted political asylum by the Canadian government in 1996.

Quotes

* ایران یک ایالات متحده ی ایران، یک اتحاد جماهیر ایران، یک مجموعه ملل مشترک المنافع می تواند باشد با زبان های مختلف، با یکی دو زبان مشترک بین همه، چرا که واقعیتش ایجاب می کند که این باشد و غیر از این نباشد، و حکومت هایی که در خلاف جهت این واقعیت حرکت کرده اند جز خونخوری برای مردم و خونخواری برای خود دستمایه ی دیگری نداشته اند.:"Iran can be a United States of Iran, a United Republics of Iran, a Commonwealth of nations with multiple languages, but with one or two ruling languages, because the realities necessitate this and none other than this, and any regime that has flowed against this direction has brought nothing but bloodsheds for its people and itself."

* البته هستند کسانی که پس از رویت این بلاها تزریق جدایی طلبی می کنند. اصلا چه کسی گفته است که ایران متعلق به دیگری است تا تو از آن جدای شوی؟ بزرگ ترین شهر آذری نشین جهان تهران است، با بیش از نیمی از جمعیت کل این پایتخت، که محصور به شهرهای آذری نشین است، بزرگترینش شهری به جمعیت چند میلیونی کرج، و واقع بین اگر باشیم باید بگوییم که تهران و اطرافش، به رغم داشتن میلیونها فارسی زبان، در دنیا، پس از استانبول و اطرافش، بزرگ ترین شهر ترک نشین جهان است،:"Of course there are those that after seeing all these tensions in Iranian Azerbaijan inject ideas of secessionism of Azeris from Iran. I want to ask them: What other group does Iran belong to that has made you want to secede from Iran? Tehran is the world's largest Azeri city, with half the population being Azeri. And it is surrounded by Azeri cities as well, the largest being the multi million population city of Karaj. And if we even want to be realistic, we can even say that Tehran and its metropolitan area, despite its large Persian population, constitutes the world's largest Turkic city, after Istanbul."

* حوزه آذربایجان ,غرض سراسر آذربایجان است، هم آنچه جدا شده و شمالی خوانده شده و هم آذربایجان ایران:"...The region of Azarbaijan, meaning all of Azarbaijan, both the part that separated off and is called "north", and the Iranian Azarbaijan..." [ [http://www.shahrvand.com/FA/Default.asp?IS=1077&Content=NW&CD=PL&NID=33#BN1077] ]

* من فکر کردم زبان فارسی را که در شرایط بسیار سخت به من تحمیل شده ، اگر یاد نگیرم و خوب هم یاد نگیرم کاری از پیش نخواهم برد. من باید از این زبان انتقام می گرفتم . پنج شش سال مداوم کار کردم ، تسلط بر این زبان بهترین انتقامی بود که از آن می گرفتم.
I thought if I don't learn Persian language,that was imposed to me in a very crucial situation,in the best way as I could ;there would be no other way for me to get my revenge from it .I continuously worked for five to six years and learning Persian language was the best revenge that I could get from that language [«معنای سادهء یک عصیان » Mr.Braheni] .

External links

* [http://www.selvesandothers.org/view1617.htm Bio1]
* [http://kabulpress.org/RAHA_exiled_writers2.htm Bio2]

References