Sadegh Bigharar; poet, writer, social/political activist. Born in 1989 in Shahrekord. I started my literary activities during my adolescence and wrote my first poems with social themes at the age of 16. I completed the story writing course in the classes of the late Ahmad Bigdeli, the prominent Iranian fiction writer. In the 2000’s, I joined the non-governmental organization “Khousheh-ye Andisheh-ye Javan” and after a year, I became the organization’s executive vice president. Later as a part of the organization’s activities, I was among the founding members and the editorial board of the monthly “Payam-e Andisheh”; a monthly magazine, with the aim of raising cultural and social awareness, which was after a year, due to the pressure from the provincial government officials, banned. After that, with friends’ help, we published the monthly “Andisheh-ye No,” which, after only two issues, suffered and shared the same fate of “Payam-e Andisheh.” Due to some problems, I was unable to continue my studies at the university, and after my military service, I continued my literary and political activities in social media and poetry associations. In the early 2010’s, I prepared a book of poems titled “Man-o Sigar-o Vatan” [Me and Cigarettes and the Homeland], which was faced the problem of publication permission. The themes of this book were mostly social and political. After that, I published some of my poems on my Telegram channel and Instagram page, and never attempted to [officially] publish a book again. In the mid-2010’s, I continued my activities in the literary association “Sha’eran-e Bi-Ghalam” [Poets without Pens], which I had been part of since its foundation. The theme of the most of my poems was tied to concepts and topics such as freedom, women, poverty, child labor, no to execution, the precariat, social justice and committed art, and thus their publication was never without problems. Because of my literary and political activities as well as protest poems, I was constantly threatened by the security and intelligence forces, which apart from two times, occurred mainly via phone calls. In 2017–18 and 2019–20 (?), I was twice arrested temporarily by the Basij organization during the protests.
When the threats increased in 2020–21, I left Iran and came to Turkey. In Turkey, I continued my literary and social/political activities through social media pages, and now I have two collections of poems entitled “Matarsaki ke Kalagh Mizaeed” [The Scarecrow That Gives birth to a Crow] and “Hichidegi” [Nonplexity] ready for publication, which will soon be published by independent publishers outside Iran. In addition to these two collections, I am currently working on a novel, which will most probably be finished by the end of 2023. Some of my poems (“Ma” [Us], “Rang-e Iran” [The Color of Iran], “NayaBarun” [Don’t Come, Rain], “Ghabl-e Ra’y-at Kami Fekr Kon” [Just Think a bit before You Vote], “Lachak” [Headscarf], etc.) were performed and published by Shobin (protest singer), and I published some poems with my own (or joint) performances in the form of video-recitation. Since the beginning of the “Women, Life, Freedom” revolution, I have published videos under the title “Azad Shavim” [We’ll Be Free], from my experiences and studies about the revolution, on my Instagram page.
But since I first arrived in Turkey (and the city I went to, because I had friends there), my asylum request was not approved due to the fulfillment of its intake capacity at that time, and since I could not meet the necessary conditions to go to other cities in Turkey, I had to obtain a temporary residence permit (i.e., a tourist residence permit), which I had trouble renewing after about two years, and thus have been living in Turkey illegally since 11/8/2022, which was the time that Turkey’s laws and regulations changed for the refugees and immigrants residing in that country. From that date on, I have lived without the authorizations needed to work, have routine commuting in the city, and even referring to any hospital or police station to file any complaint or ask for any help and safety provision, since if I do so, I will be faced with the very serious risk of arrest and deportation to Iran.
