Artist Profile
Sahar Ajdamsani
Iran
Current Status: In Exile
“This world will be created by us and with our hands.” These are the words that award-winning Iranian poet, singer, photographer, and activist Sahar Ajdamsani, aged 26, lives and creates by. Working across disciplines to tackle questions around human rights, women’s rights, and international solidarity, Ajdamsani has published two volumes of poetry and released two collaborative musical projects: the album “Dreamy World” in 2019 and the song “Quarantine World” in 2021. In 2019, her poem “Censorship” received the top prize at the WILDsound Poetry Festival, making her the first Iranian to win the festival. Following the release of “Quarantine World,” her latest project, Ajdamsani’s safety was put under attack due to a summons and continued harassment from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. Ajdamsani fled to Iraq, where she lived in exile for eight long and difficult months before finally relocating to Germany in June 2022.
In her latest project, “Quarantine World,” Ajdamsani sought to provide a message of hope and connection that would transcend national boundaries in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The song featured lyrics by Ajdamsani in Farsi and contributions by 11 other global artists in their own languages. In an interview with Nigeria’s Guardian, she noted that the intended purpose of the project was not only to “empathize with the people in this situation, but also to inspire them,” and to speak both to the experiences of those within each artist’s country as well as to the universal experience of COVID-19 quarantines.
Ajdamsani’s work has often taken on an international focus. Her previous album, "Dreamy World," produced with support from the United Nations and UNICEF, featured artists from 13 different countries. Compiling eleven songs from among these artists, each in a different language, Ajdamsani envisioned the album as an international call for peace. Discussing the collaborative nature of these projects, Ajdamsani noted in an interview with Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah that while “managing and coordinating a lot of people from different parts of the world is really hard,” she chooses to “take [on] this hardship because [her] goal and message of world unity, world peace and the revitalization of humanity and kindness and equality and love for all beings in the world, is more important” to her.
Ajdamsani began writing poetry at the age of eight, motivated by her early awareness of the gender inequality faced by women in Iran. As she continued to produce music and poetry throughout her childhood and into college, she faced greater challenges around her work from community, educational, and government authorities. She was urged by her family not to study music due to the hardships she would face in the field, and was pushed to study archaeology in college instead. Still, she persisted with her creative work, publishing two books of poetry, “5th season of the Earth” and “I flew to the moon” while enrolled at the University of Tehran. Both books heavily feature poems promoting women’s rights, and in an interview with JL Interviews following the release of “5th season of the Earth,” Ajdamsani dedicated a message to Iranian women, “I hope they will never give up their rights, realize their wishes and fight for them as long as they are alive.”
It is illegal for women to sing on their own in Iran and, as a result, many of Ajdamsani’s poems and songs have been censored. Before “Dreamy World” was released, for example, Ajdamsani released a single, spoken-word version of a song from the album to evade the restrictions around singing by women. When she has performed in Tehran in the past, she has taken severe precautions: limiting her audience to women, not advertising the event, and restricting the venue to a size small enough to avoid unwanted attention. Still, Ajdamsani said in an interview with Skylight that she continues to produce her work in order to “fight against these restrictions and prohibitions to bring these rights to all women in my land and pave the way for them,” so that all “women after me can easily follow their favorite arts.”
Following the release of “Quarantine World” in August of last year, Ajdamsani began to receive harassment and threats from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. At first, she was repeatedly contacted by a blocked number connected to the Ministry, and soon after she lost all access to her bank account. Even after deactivating all social media, the harassment continued: her family and friends began receiving communications and losing access to their finances as well, and soon after she received an official summons from the Ministry. After receiving the summons, Ajdamsani went into hiding, and, fearing for her safety, left Iran in October, crossing the border into Iraq where she began living in exile on a temporary visa.
In December, Ajdamsani contacted PEN America’s Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) for help. ARC’s team members assisted her in applying for a number of emergency funds, visas, and residency programs. In May, after persevering through countless rejections, financial instability, sickness, and months of separation from her family and loved ones, Ajdamsani was invited to participate in “Parole Spacante,” the 28th Annual International Poetry Festival in Genoa, Italy. After the festival, she relocated to Germany, where she is working to rebuild her life and continue to create art that speaks to the shared experiences and struggles that bind humanity.
By Will Leggat, August 2022. Will is a sophomore at Yale College studying history and international relations.
