IWAC – Report from Exile, Ali Sheikh Ali Chalashtri
A poet, songwriter, critic, dramaturg and director, born on 13.06.1984 in Ahvaz, I have been living in Bon, Germany since 2015. I began my professional artistic career in 1997 at Ahvaz Art House “Doshanbe Asr.” Due to the fact that I was banned from any free literary and artistic activity by the Islamic Republic for many years, I was unable to live in Iran. At the same time, I have always been protesting against the system and supporting the detainees, prisoners and banned or, as was euphemized back then, “starred” students. I kept supporting the fired and banned from the dawn of weblog-writing till the emergence of Instagram. Between 2008 and 2010, I succeeded in receiving the title of dramaturge in the field of theater, and in 2012, I had the honor of my poem “Eyelids are Innocent” being reviewed and criticized by the late Dr. Reza Barahani, an internationally acclaimed, prominent critic of modern lit. of Iran, then based in Canada.
I also participated in a 100-second film festival in 2013, where I sent a film as a director, which failed to pass the censorship checkmarks of the Islamic Republic. In 2014, I published my collection of poems, “I Thinks of Killing Myself,” on Noorhan’s online literary publication. Furthermore, during all these years, I have had cooperation with newspapers and literary websites, plus on Facebook as a critic or by publishing articles and conducting interviews. In 2015, I entered Germany as family-dependent and until a few days ago, I was working at Saubway, from which I was fired, and now I may lose my residential status in Germany. Since my family and I have been threatened many times by mercenaries and agents of the Islamic Republic, and that any trip or extradition to Iran may be rendered highly costly and dangerous for me, I will never be able to return to Iran; I could not even attend my father’s funeral and bid farewell to the dearest members of my family for the last time and bury them with respect. I am now in exile and this is the only option that I could choose for myself as a member of the culture and literature community, facing the constant danger of the Islamic Republic.
