Mohammad Hossein Allafi

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Mohammad Hossein Allafi

Mohammad Hossein Allafi ( listen ? / I ; * 1952 in Kerend, West Iran ) is a writer, translator and publisher who lives in Frankfurt am Main. Audio file / audio sample

Life

Born in 1952 in the small old town of Kerend at the foot of the Zagros Mountains in Kurdistan / Iran, he grew up bilingual - Kurdish and Persian - and attended the local school up to intermediate level. In 1968 he moved to the neighboring city of Kermanshah , where he attended high school and graduated from high school in 1971. From 1971 to 1972 he had to do his military service in the imperial gendarmerie , initially for six months in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj , then for two months in the port city of Bushehr and then on the island of Charg in the Persian Gulf.

From 1973 to 1978 Allafi lived in Tehran , where he completed an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering at the Tehran refinery. After completing his training, he worked in the Isfahan refinery for exactly two weeks. Then he realized his plan to study abroad and traveled to Germany , where he was politically and socially involved in the left-wing alternative scene from the start. Because of this commitment, after he had first learned the German language and finished the preparatory college in Mainz , he decided to study sociology , education, social psychology and political science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main , where he was also his wife Met Sabine. In his diploma thesis (1985) he dealt with the life planning of young people in Germany. But since he was fascinated by his first homeland, he made the industrialization process in Iran the subject of his doctorate. With reference to the French regulation theory , he wrote a comprehensive thesis on Iran in the modern age, thereby earning the title of Doctor of Philosophy in 1989 and thus graduating from the University of Frankfurt am Main with a degree in social sciences.

In the years that followed, from 1989 to 1991, he was torn between Iran and Germany. The Islamic revolution in Iran and the emergence of Islam as a political ideology led him to an intensive examination of political Islam , which ultimately resulted in the book Islam, Society and European Modernism (2002).

From 1991 to 2005 Allafi taught sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. His interim attempt to teach as a professor of sociology in Iran failed because of cultural discrepancies with his environment. Faced with the direct threat of violence, he had to flee the country in a hurry. Since then he has lived in Frankfurt am Main again , where, in addition to his work as a scientist and author, he has also made a name for himself as a translator and editor of numerous works by modern Iranian authors, e. B. through the anthologies The Small Gift (1994), A Picture to Remember (1997), Eastern Brise (1998) and Mina with the blue dress. Modern Narratives by Iranian Women (1999). In addition, with his translations he made the works of the most important Iranian novelists available to a German-speaking readership for the first time, such as the novels Drama der Trauer by Simin Daneshwar (1997), The Return of Ahmad Mahmud (1997), Winter '83 by Esmail Fassih (1998) , and stories by Simin Daneshwar (most recently 2012) under the title Ask the Migratory Birds and by Moniro Ravanipur The Stones of Satan (1996). In 1994 he and his wife founded Glaré Verlag, which sees itself as a forum for understanding across cultural boundaries with the aim of a peaceful future for all. With the two series The Other Orient and East meets West, you have created a forum that presents the modern Orient and, on the other hand, gives authors space between two cultures (Orient and Occident).

In A Window to Freedom (2000) Allafi traces the hundred-year literary history of Iran in three generations using numerous examples and at the same time says goodbye to modern Iranian literature, which in his opinion has nothing essential to offer as a result of the repression and restrictions on the freedom of authors .

His own literary work revolves around two main themes: on the one hand there are the Iranian people and the turmoil in their country between tradition and modernity, on the other hand it is about life in Germany and those who critically deal with the local conditions.

His first novel It snows in the Zagros Mountains (1991), brings up the needs of the people in Kurdistan. A theme that he takes up again in a humorous way in The Sewing Machine (1994). A stage version was premiered under the title Unter Strom in 1996 in the Theaterhaus Frankfurt . The novella Verloren (1996) tells of a young Kurd in the turmoil of the Islamic revolution.

His novel Leyla - In Search of Freedom (2005), in which the abstract Leyla (from the legend of Leyla and Majnun ) stands as a metaphor for unfulfilled love, but does not stop , is also about Iran . Allafi not only introduces different modern women, all of whom happen to be called Leyla, but the author also dares to draw a path to freedom and free love in a mercilessly oppressive environment.

The unscrupulousness of the political scene in Iran today is the subject of Nalan. A Person Without Mercy (2009), on which the author himself formulated shortly after Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election: “When I wrote down the Nalan, I said to myself that I might have exaggerated with regard to the description of lies and deceit and interpersonal intrigues . However, when I followed the last elections in Iran and the statements of the so-called Islamic elites in the country with regard to their outcome, as well as what had happened in recent months, I was a little reassured because they show that I could not exaggerate, although I did exaggerated ... "

Allafi's second phase of life in Germany is reflected in his Gabriela trilogy. In Die Nights am Main (1998), The Last Night with Gabriela (2003) and Gabriela Finds a Stack of Paper (2012) the “homeless” protagonists Hans, Hassan and Gabriela wander through the left-wing alternative scene and struggle with everyday occurrences in the cultural and social life in Germany. The search for the happiness of the individual clearly stands above the intellectual confrontation with the zeitgeist and the concerns of the middle class. In The Confused Orientale and the beautiful Laleh, an oriental thrown out into the world takes stock. The years of inner and outer awakening are over, but the longing for a better world still burns in him.

Despite his life and work in Germany, developments in Iran cannot let go of the author. Together with his partner, he writes several scientific books. On the threshold of democracy in Iran? (2003) both characterize the various political groups in Iran and examine them for their compatibility with democratic structures. In view of the repetition of the political disputes in 2014, both switched to an analysis of the current developments and structures under the topic of Iran - Islamist jumble versus democracy? (2014) entered the debate. As early as 1994, as an illuminating contribution to an overheated media-political debate, the meanwhile again up-to-date analysis of development policy in pillory - How the peoples of the third world are condemned to seek asylum. With the example of Kurdistan.

Works

Novels and short stories

Non-fiction books and essays

  • together with S. Allafi: Iran - Islamist jumble versus democracy? Glaré, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-930761-86-9 .
  • together with S. Allafi: Iran on the threshold of democracy? The first Islamic republic in the contours of the new world order. Glaré, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-930761-33-5 .
  • Islam, society and European modernity. Glaré, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-930761-27-0 .
  • A window to freedom. 100 years of modern Iranian literature. Glaré, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-930761-23-8 .
  • together with S. Allafi: Development policy in the pillory - How the peoples of the 3rd world are condemned to seek asylum. Wisslit.-Verlag, Konstanz 1994, ISBN 3-89038-822-1 .
  • Economic paradigm shift in the Islamic Republic of Iran? : to reactivate the industrialization process. In: Orient: German magazine for politics, economy and culture of the Orient. Berlin: Dt. Orient-Institut, ISSN  0030-5227 , ZDB -ID 207426-6 ., Bd. 31.1990, 4, pp. 603-615

Editing and translations

About Mohammad Hossein Allafi

  • Anita Strecker: Looking at what moves people. The sociologist and author Mohammad H. Allafi builds bridges to the Orient with his publishing house. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , October 5, 2004
  • Edgar Auth: Stories of the Disintegration of Ideologies. The Glaré Mohammad Allafis puts an end to all oriental romanticism. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. October 19, 2000
  • Literature tips Iran. In: the daily newspaper . 14./15. October 2000
  • Select worlds. Brochure from the Reading Foundation , Mainz 1999
  • Behind the black veil. Mohammad Allafi and his Frankfurt publisher Glaré. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 14, 1999
  • A couple of inches off the ground. Mohammad Allafi's “The Nights on the Main”. In: Göttinger Tageblatt . July 15, 1998
  • The other Orient. In: LiteraturNachrichten. No. 55, October – December 1997
  • The pitfalls of the modern way of life. Mohammad Allafi writes and publishes books on the Orient. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. July 29, 1996
  • Knowledge makes you tolerant. We spoke to Mohammad H. Allafi. In: Schwäbisches Tagblatt . September 28, 1992

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mohammad Hossein Allafi: Peripheral Fordism in Iran. Three decades of contradictions in the regulation of a partially modernized country (1952-1982). Wisslit.-Verlag, Konstanz 1990, ISBN 978-3-89038-817-5
  2. ↑ https://www.aoi.uzh.ch/de/islamwissenschaft/studium/semesterangebote/archive/commentsSS05.html
  3. ↑ https://www.nzz.ch/article8WRZN-1.330541
  4. ↑ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/fasih-esmail
  5. ↑ [1] See: Kurt Scharf: The wind will kidnap us. Modern Persian poetry, Munich: CHBeck 2005
  6. ^ [2] aid - Foreigners in Germany, Edition 1/2003: Integration in Germany
  7. ↑ Jürgen Richter: Dressage through light signals. “Unter Strom” after Allafi's “Sewing Machine” in the theater house. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of October 11, 1996 and Jutta Baier: Lebensernst. Tiyatro Saz-Rock shows MH Allafi's piece “Unter Strom”.
  8. ↑ http://www.ag-friedensforschung.de/regionen/Iran/buch-rez.html
  9. ↑ Review by Matthias Lemke on Iran - Islamist jumble versus democracy? , Portal for Political Science, The Annotated Bibliography
  10. ^ A review by Silke Becker on Iran on the threshold of democracy? The First Islamic Republic in the Contours of the New World Order , Portal for Political Science, The Annotated Bibliography
  11. ↑ Review by Silke Becker on Islam, Society and European Modernism , Portal for Political Science, The Annotated Bibliography
  12. ↑ See: EconBiz - Virtual Library of Economics (online)
  13. ↑ http://www.kiwi-verlag.de/uebersetzer/mohammad-h-allafi/1641/

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Allafi, Mohammad Hossein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian writer, translator and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Western Iran