Nama Jafari

Iranian poet, writer and blogger Nama Jafari has been editor in chief of the online magazine Sepanj, “the voice of independent literature of Iran” since November 2007. The magazine has published works of Iranian dissidents who do not write within the framework of the magazines and newspapers related to the Islamic Republic regime of Iran.

Jafari’s first poetry book, I am the funny son of Picasso, was one of the first books to be banned from being republished during Mahmood Ahmadinejad’s presidential period. Most of his books were subsequently banned from publication by the Islamic Republic regime of Iran, including the books Freedom is the name of a girl with coloured hair, French kiss me (a collection of poems) and Ayatollah Lapat (a novel based on documents of sexual assault of prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s prisons).

Nama Jafari secretly published Assemblage in solitary confinement, a collection of protest poems and manuscripts after the 10th presidential election in Iran, in August 2010. The book was later republished by Ketab Corp in 2011. A collection of his poems has also been published secretly as an audiobook titled Breaking down the wound’s corpse.

Nama has been engaged in a number of anti-censor activities, one of which is leading the site Filternet where he provides software facilities for Iranians to be able to pass filtering, providing them with secure ways to access free information.
 
Nama was imprisoned twice for his participation in the peaceful mass protests against the results of the 10th presidential election of Iran, where he actively lead the public and articulated slogans. The last time he was threatened by the Islamic Republic regime of Iran in August 2013, he decided to secretly leave the country.

Nama Jafari currently writes for the online magazine Tableau and is also working on writing a novel named The absolute orgasm which is about the sex revolution in Iran.

Nama Jafari arrived in Lillehammer in September 2014 as the city’s third guest writer.

Nama Jafari on BBC Persian