Hossein Heydari

The Kurdish journalist, director and actor from Iran was one of the founders of Andeshe, a Kurdish-Persian journal, in 1997. He worked as a journalist in "Tishk" and "Aso", and was part of a theater group in Mariwan. Heydari has taken part in, and won awards at, several culture festivals as an actor in and a director of plays and films. In 2007, Heidary fled to Southern Kurdistan (Iraq) when the Iranian government arrested his friend Adnan Hassanpour and sentenced him to death.

Heidary has since been an active participant in the campaign for Hassanpour, whose sentence has been turned into a lifelong prison term as a result of the campaign. He resided as guest writer in Bergen City of Refuge from 2008 to 2010. While in exile, Heidary works with the Kurdish-Pershian Xorhelat website, and continues to actively support persecuted writers.