Amir Cheheltan: AN EXILE IN MY OWN COUNTRY

Renata Schmidtkunz in conversation with Amir
Cheheltan


AN EXILE IN MY OWN COUNTRY


 


Amir Hassan Cheheltan is one of the most important contemporary
Iranian writers. He lives and writes in Tehran. His novels have
been banned from publication in Iran for over 20 years. They are
published in German translation before any other languages. His
latest book “The Rose of Nishapour”’was published by C.H. Beck in
October 2024.


Renata Schmidtkunz talks to Amir Cheheltan at the Bruno Kreisky
Forum about his new novel and his literary work, about the
challenges of living and writing in Tehran, and the difficulties
under which a vibrant creative cultural and intellectual scene in
Iran is trying to survive and make their voices heard within the
country and abroad. What are the perspectives of women and youth,
of creative people and thinkers in the light of the situation in
Iran and the war and increasing tensions in the Middle East? How
is Europe perceived and what can be done better to support the
potential and survival of artists and thinkers in
Iran? 





Amir Hassan Cheheltan, writer, born in 1956 in
Tehran and studied electrical engineering first in Iran, later in
Great Britain. Cheheltan has been writing since the 1970s, has
been active in the Iranian Writers‘ Association since 1977and is
a jury member of international journalism „True Story Award“.
After surviving two state-sponsored assassination attempts during
the period known as “Iran’s Chain Murders,” the author of 13
novels and numerous essays and short stories in 8 volumes left
Iran and lived with his family in Italy, Germany and the USA for
several years. His work is translated into English, German,
French, Italian, Hebrew and some other languages. Cheheltan was
drawn back to Tehran because “…although he feels like an exile in
his own country, he knows of no other place where he would rather
write…”





Renata Schmidtkunz, Journalist, Film maker and
Moderator, Director of the Radio Programme Series „Im Gespräch“,
Radio Österreich 1