Khalil Rostamkhani
Khalil Rostamkhani
Ich habe wohl eine besondere Beziehung zum "Exil". Mein erstes Exil verlebte ich in England in den 70er Jahren. Fast drei Jahrzehnte später begann mein zweites Exil, diesmal in Deutschland. Als ich im Jahr 2000 im Iran verurteilt wurde, lautete das Urteil 8 Jahre in einem Gefängnis in der Verbannung, also einem internen "Exil", einem Gefängnis weit weg von meiner Heimatstadt. Das Exil gibt einem, egal wo es dann tatsächlich ist, die Chance am Leben zu bleiben, zu schreiben, sogar frei von Angst dieses zu tun, aber es nimmt den vertrauten Kontakt mit der Muttersprache, der Umgangssprache und die Begegnung mit der Bevölkerung. Aber: Leben ist Geschichte – nicht Geographie.
[I must have a special relationship with "exile". My first exile I lived out in England in the 70s. Nearly three decades later began my second exile, this time in Germany. When I was sentenced in Iran in 2000, the sentence was eight years in prison in banishment, an internal “exile”, a prison far away from my home city. Exile gives you, no matter where it actually is, a chance to stay alive, to write, even to do this without fear, but it takes away the familiar contact with your mother tongue, with the vernacular and with your people. But life is history – not geography. (ed. trans.)]
Khalil Rostamkhani in Writers in Exile, 2013
| Born | on 11 September 1953 in Tehran, Iran |
|---|---|
| Exile | Great Britain (United Kingdom), Federal Republic of Germany |
| Profession | Writer |
Already as a 16-year-old, the Iranian writer Khalil Rostamkhani took part in the 1969 protests against the Shah's regime. Three years later he went to study in England. There he soon became a member of CISNU and worked actively for solidarity campaigns for Iran and against the Shah.
In 1980 in Tehran he founded the English-language news service Akhbaar Ruz and a translation agency two years later. He supported foreign journalists in their work in Iran. He was also editor of Iran Yearbook and various English-language magazines.
In 1982, he learned that his arrest was imminent and he subsequently disappeared from public view in Iran for eight years. He was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison but was released after two years. He composed a number of his translations (Eva Luna by Isabel Allende, Maschenka by Vladimir Nabokov as well as The Vatican Cellars by André Gide) – as well as his own poems in prison.
At the beginning of 2000, he worked as a translator for the Heinrich Böll Foundation, helping to prepare a conference in Iran. Several conference participants as well as Khalil Rostamkhani were arrested on charges that the conference was anti-Islamic and against the interests of the Iranian state. After months of solitary confinement, he was sentenced to a prison term of eight years to be served in exile at the Persian Gulf. In March 2003, he was released, thanks to international pressure from Germany among other countries and he received an exit permit from Iran on account of the illness of his wife who was living in Germany.
He remained in Germany and from January 2006 to July 2009 he was a fellow of Writers in Exile network of the PEN Club.
Selected works:
Eine ganze Woche, eine Geschichte (An entire week, a history; poetry, 2009)
Gedichte hinter Gittern (Poems behind bars; poetry, 2009)
Gedichte und Briefe aus dem Gefängnis (Poems and letters from prison; poetry, 2013)
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