This press release has been published by the Pasargad Heritage Foundation to the Personalities of the Year for their vision and efforts to preserve the national, cultural, historical, and natural heritage of Iran that also belongs to all humanity

Recipient of Nowruz Award of Pasargad Heritage Foundation, year 1402 Iranian Calendar (2023)

“Artist (and Author) of the Year”

Mr. Jalali Chimeh (M. Sahar) is a poet, author, playwright and a theater actor, and the recipient of the Nowruz, Pasargad Heritage Foundation’s “Artist of the Year” award for his achievements as outlined below:

• • For his several decades of efforts in the field of literature, poetry and performing arts,
  • For his extensive writings and several books including books of poetry and plays and articles about the history of Iranian literature,
  • For his influential poems that fall into the category of “resistance poetry” or “patriotic poetry”.
  • For his impressive deliberation and focus on Iran’s culture and history in his poems and writings, as a weapon in confronting the anti-Persian-culture of the ruling government of Iran.

Biography of Mohammad Jalali Chimeh – M. Sahar

Mohammad Jalali Chimeh M. Sahar was born in Chimeh. Chimeh is a village in Barzrud Rural District, in the Central District of Natanz County, Isfahan Province, Iran. He attended primary school in the Chimeh, and then attended high school in Kashan, Natanz and Tehran. After highschool, he attended the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University and after completing his bachelor’s degree with a thesis in the field of performing arts bibliography, he went to Paris to continue his studies in 1977 (1356 on the Iranian calendar). Sahar studied sociology, theater and literature at the universities of Nanterre, New Sorbonne, and Paris 7.

M. Sahar’s first collection of poems was published in Paris in 1979 (1358 Iranian calendar), which was affected by the troubled situation at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. The collection, which was titled “Yadar Z Shama Morde Yadar” contains his first poems of protest. After that, his second collection of poems titled the “Memory of the Bloody Homeland” was published, which also contained poems reflecting the events of the first years of the revolution and the protesting voice of the poet.

During the same years, M. Sahar wrote the verse play “Khalifa’s Court”. That book also reflected the current events and situation of the time, with humor and in the form of a poetic and critical play. In that book, which was published in 1982 (1361 Iranian calendar), he chose the pseudonym M. Sahar; A name that has been used on all his works and books of poetry since then.

M. Sahar is also a theater actor and has participated in many plays that have been performed in Paris and several other European cities.

M. Sahar has written dozens of books of poetry and numerous articles in the fields of social and cultural criticism, as well as in the field of literature and poetry, which have been published in various Persian and French literary publications.

Sahar could not return to Iran due to his writings and works, and in 1981 (1360 on Iranian calendar) he inevitably became a refugee in France and since then he has been living in Paris as a political refugee.