Basir Ahang

journalist and poet

Basir Ahang is a poet, journalist and actor born in Ghazni, Afghanistan. He graduated from Kabul University in Persian History and Literature. He began his career writing for several local newspapers, founding and working as a radio producer for Radio Malistan and for many other media in Kabul. Due to his journalistic work Basir received death threats from the Taliban and was therefore forced to abandon the country.

In 2008 Basir obtained political refugee status in Italy. Here he worked also as an interpreter and cultural mediator. In 2009 he went to Greece, with the aim of documenting the tragic situation of refugees. Here he shot the documentary La Voce di Patrasso, part of which was broadcast on RAI 3 during the TV program Presa Diretta presented by Riccardo Iacona.

Basir Ahang has also collaborated with the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UHNCR). Some of his articles have been published on BBC Persian, Deutsche Welle, Radio Zamaneh and Frontiers News.

Basir is also involved in the field of poetry and cinema. As an actor, he played a role in the short film The Guest, by the director Amin Wahidi winner of the 2014 City of Venice award, and as a protagonist in the movie Sembra mio figlio, by Costanza Quatriglio.

Many of his poems have been translated into Italian, English and Spanish. In 2014 he participated to the International Festival of Sassari Ottobre in Poesia, winning the special critics prize for a poem in competition. In 2015 he released his first book of poetry Sogni di tregua (Gilgamesh Editions) and in the same year he took part to the International Poetry Festival of Medellín in Colombia.

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Events in past editions

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