ICORN Residency

Mostafa Zamaninija (born 1957) – an Iranian writer, publisher, academic teacher and agent. He has published many books dealing with Iranian history and culture, as well as poetry, novels, screenplays and essays. His novels (for example, Kudām zamīn shādtar ast, Bigū bih Māh Biyāīd, or Rāh-i Darāz-i Istānbūl) were banned in Iran. His two-volume work Farahan, An Ancient Land became a point of reference for historians exploring the literature, history and culture of ancient Persia. From the 1980s, Zamaninija was a target of persecutions, arrests and censorship by Iranian authorities, which became particularly intense after the presidential election in 2009. During that period, he wrote an open letter to the government, in which he criticised censorship and the treatment of the Green Movement. Consequently, Zamaninija was arrested, his house was searched, and his computer, books and other publications were confiscated. He arrived in Krakow in 2013 to continue his research and write the third volume of Farahan.