Golshiri ravAnash shAd

The sad news of Golshiri passing away. I remember him and Soltanpour
in shabhAyeh-sher in 1356, in Tehran, right before the revolution, when
everyone was so happy to feel the breeze of democracy, and ending of
dictatorship in Iran.

RavaAnash shAd bAd,
- Sam Ghandchi


Iran's leading dissident writer Golshiri dies

06/05/00

TEHRAN, June 5 (Reuters) - Iran's leading dissident writer, Houshang
Golshiri, died of a brain infection on Monday, colleagues said.

Golshiri, a novelist and founder of the independent Writers' Association of
Iran, died at a Tehran hospital at the age of 57.

He had long struggled for greater freedom of expression in Iran and been
persecuted both by the Islamic system and under the rule of the shah,
toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

He was among 134 writers and intellectuals to sign an open letter in
1994, demanding more freedom.

A little over a year ago he helped resurrect the pre-revolutionary Writers'
Association in the face of constant harassment by security forces and
hardline courts.

``He was a prominent example of an independent writer in Iran. As a
founder of the association he was under constant pressure,'' a member of
the association told Reuters.

Golshiri's works have mostly been banned in the Islamic republic because
of their explicit sexual and political subject matter, forcing him to
publish
his novels and short stories abroad.

His most recent work, The Ghost Letter, was printed in Sweden.

But Golshiri continued to publish articles and essays in Iranian literary
journals, encouraged by a more tolerant cultural climate created by
President Mohammad Khatami.

He also spoke out against right-wing religious violence after a string of
mystery murders of secular writers and dissidents, blamed on rogue
elements in the security services.

Golshiri was a favoured target of Islamic hardliners, who accused him of
having ties with anti-revolutionaries and ``hostile'' Western governments.