Mansour Koushan (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: منصور کوشان) (26 December 1948

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

– 16 February 2014

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

) was a prominent Iranian novelist, poet, playwright, editor and director. He received the

Ossietzky Award The Ossietzky Award ( no, Ossietzkyprisen ) is a prize awarded by the Norwegian chapter of P.E.N., for extraordinary contributions to freedom of speech. The prize is named after writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carl von Ossietzky. Recipie ...

in 2010 for his outstanding work for human rights and freedom of expression. He was an active member of Iranian Writers’ Association and a strong opponent to the Iranian regime. In December 1998 Koushan was invited by the Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression to deliver a speech at the 50th anniversary of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights Charter. Not long after, he received news that two of his friends and colleagues Mohammad Mokhtari and

Mohammad-Ja'far Pouyandeh Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh (also spelled Mohammad-Jafar Pooyandeh or Mohammad Jafar Poyandeh, fa, محمد جعفر پوینده) (7 June 1954 – 8 or 9 December 1998) was an Iranian writer, translator and activist. He was a member of the Iranian ...

had been abducted and killed in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. His name was likewise on the regimes death list. These killings were part of what is known as

Chain Murders of Iran The chain murders of Iran ( fa, قتل‌های زنجیره‌ای ایران) were a series of 1988–98 murders and disappearances of certain Iranian dissident intellectuals who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system. The murders a ...

. Koushan was then forced to live in exile and resided in Norway the rest of his life. In Iran Koushan was the editor of independent literary periodicals Iran, Donyaye Sokhan, Takapou and Adineh. Takapou was shut down in 1996 for being the sole outlet to publish the " 1994 Declaration of 134 Iranian Writers," a letter against censorship that would result in the deaths of many of its signatories at the hands of the Iranian regime's secret service. In Norway he was the artistic manager and director of Teater Sølvberg and staged many plays by international artists. In recent years he was the editor of Jonge Zaman literary quarterly. Koushan was awarded a literary prize in Iran for his theoretical analysis of Norwegian playwright

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

's work. He has published more than 40 titles of poetry, short stories, novels, analysis and plays, as well as hundreds of analytical essays on culture, literature, society and politics. He died of

Gastric Cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

on 16 February 2014 at the age of 65.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koushan, Koushan 1948 births 2014 deaths Writers from Isfahan Iranian male novelists Iranian novelists 20th-century Iranian poets Iranian dramatists and playwrights Iranian emigrants to Norway 21st-century Iranian poets