Reza Baraheni’s Obituary

Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0

April 8 2022, by Haroon Siddiqui, former president of Pen Canada

Reza Baraheni, Iranian dissident, prodigious author and former president of Pen Canada (2001-03) has died, at the age of 86, in Toronto.

An internationally recognized novelist, poet and literary critic, Baraheni authored more than 60 books of fiction, poetry and literary criticism. His works have been translated in a dozen languages.

Burhan Sonmez, President of PEN International, said: “I, alongside the entire PEN movement, mourn the loss of our family member Reza Baraheni. There are no words to express our sorrow. Reza’s work for the protection of suppressed minorities was instrumental in shaping the work of PEN, inspiring us to fight to safeguard the human right to freedom of expression. We, at PEN, will ensure that those who expose injustice and abuse at the highest levels, like Reza, are protected. His legacy will live on”.

A ferocious human rights activist and a valiant warrior for freedom of speech, he was perpetually protesting against his homeland’s persecution of writers, intellectuals and ethnic minorities. He was jailed and tortured by both the regime of the Shah and, after the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic.

John Ralston Saul, former president of PEN International and former president of PEN Canada, said: “When I first met Reza Baraheni I was struck by how this gentle figure was at the same time ‘a ferocious defender of freedom of expression.’ Ferocious is the right word. The energy and determination he put into advancing the cause of free speech against the Shah’s regime and then against the Islamic Republic put him twice in jail. His ethical courage made him a model for all of us when it comes to defending free speech. You put yourself, your very body, in the way of its opponents.”

An Azerbaijani Turk, Baraheni was first arrested in 1973 for having spoken up for non-Persian minorities, whose linguistic, ethnic and cultural identities were being suppressed. He was released after protests by prominent American academics and writers, including novelist Jerzy Kosinsky. They called him “Iran’s Solzhenitsyn.”

E.L. Doctorow described him “the chronicler of his nation’s torture industry.” And Harper’s magazine dubbed him “Iran’s finest living poet.”

He defected to the United State. He testified before Congress and rallied intellectuals like Arthur Miller, Joan Baez, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Berrigan, Pete Seeger, Susan Sontag and others to question Washington’s blind support of the Shah. In December 1978, he and Allen Ginsberg were among the hundreds demonstrating outside the White House while Jimmy Carter was hosting the king.

Two months later, the Islamic revolution came. Elated, Baraheni returned to his homeland.

He resumed teaching at the University of Tehran but soon ran afoul of the new rulers, especially for his work with the banned Writers’ Association. In 1994, at clandestine meetings of the group, Baraheni and others wrote a charter calling for “freedom of expression, without limits or exceptions.” They called it the Text of 134, echoing Vaclav Havel’s Charter of 77 in Communist Czechoslovakia. He translated it into English and had it smuggled it to Arthur Miller, who read it at the 1994 Congress of International PEN in Prague.

Retaliation in Iran was swift. Baraheni and others were summoned for interrogations. Many were jailed, blackmailed or murdered. His name turned up on a hit list in the fall of 1995. He fled to Sweden, from where he came to Canada in 1997, with the help of PEN Canada.

“Reza’s case was one of the rare ones when PEN Canada was able to make a real difference efficiently and happily,” recalls author Ron Graham, who was president at the time. “The office got word of a distinguished Iranian poet and scholar who had got as far as Sweden and was trying to get to Canada as a political refugee. Within hours, the foreign ministry in Ottawa whisked him through the system.”

From Canada, Baraheni continued his battle against the persecution of journalists, authors, academics and other in Iran.

His vision, however, was not confined to Iran. He was instrumental in having the wording of charter of PEN International changed to make it more universal. Its first words used to be: “Literature, national though it may be in origin, knows no frontiers and must remain common currency among people in spite of political or international upheavals.” He proposed deleting the words, “national though it be in origin.” That simple yet profound change was approved at the 2003 PEN Congress in Mexico City, the first change to the document since it was agreed to in 1948. The revised Charter now reads: “Literature knows no frontiers ...”

He is survived by wife Sanaz Sehhati of Toronto; daughter, Aleca, of Fairfax, Virginia; Oktay, of Tehran and Toronto; Arsalan and Esfandiar, of Toronto.

A memorial is planned for April.

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman of Washington, former International Secretary of PEN International, who worked with Baraheni, said: “I remember well the sharp intelligence and passion of Reza Baraheni, an important voice in PEN, especially in PEN Canada and for writers in Iran. “Reza also contributed his intellect and word smithing to alter PEN’s beloved Charter to reflect better the 21st Century.”

Haroon Siddiqui, who succeeded Baraheni as PEN Canada president, and also served on the board of Pen International (2007-13) called him an “indefatigable defender of free speech and a valiant warrior for human rights.”

“He and Canada were made for each other. In no other country would a newcomer, even of Baraheni’s stature, have been so quickly accepted and elevated to the presidency of a PEN chapter, as he was here within four years of his arrival.”