Upcoming Event

Rukhshana Ahmadi

Rukhshana Ahmadi is an Afghan-Canadian writer, journalist, and advocate for education, human rights, and social justice, based in Toronto. She was born in Jaghori, the southern fringes of the Hazaristan region in Afghanistan. Back home she studied English Literature and Civil Aviation. In 2021, following the Taliban’s return to power and the banning of women from all public life, Rukhshana was forced to escape the country and came to Canada.

Her love for storytelling has led her to pursue a career in journalism. Currently in her final year at Toronto Metropolitan University, Rukhshana majors in journalism with minors in English and politics.

Rukhshana enjoys the challenge of finding human interest stories. Her work spans writing, photography, video, and poetry, and has appeared in publications including The Archipelago, The Green Line, and J-Source.

She has co-founded Family of Books, an NPO promoting literacy, writing, and communication skills and is working on writing her first book.

Currently contributing to The Green Line as a writer/reporter, Rukhshana continues to advocate for Afghan girls’ education and fundamental freedoms.

Ali Sobati

Ali Sobati is an Iranian poet, translator, and literary activist based in Toronto. With over 20 years of work in Iran’s suppressed literary and academic circles, he has taught modern poetry, philosophy of literature, and critical theory across underground and alternative institutions. He is the co-editor and translator of Hairan: Poems of Hair and Freedom (Scotland Street Press, 2024) and author of the forthcoming poetry collection The Tree of Life: A Fragmented Elegy. Sobati’s work spans Persian and English, engaging with exile, trauma, and resistance. In addition to publishing widely, he has organized poetry collectives, disaster relief campaigns, and educational workshops for at-risk youth in Tehran’s Darvazeh Ghar district. Since arriving in Canada in 2022, he has continued this intersectional literary and social work model through public readings, translations, and cultural programming. His exile is a direct result of his public defiance of Iran’s state censorship and cultural repression.

Hazrat Wahriz

Hazrat Wahriz is a 54-year-old Afghan Hazara, former diplomat, and university instructor, currently leading a network of community schools for girls in Afghanistan. His authored and translated books – mainly in literature – have been published in Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Japan, Canada, and Vietnam. He introduced Farsi-speaking readers to prominent Russian writers and poets. He holds a master’s degree in education from Russia (1996) and is the father of four children.

Jinoos Taghizadeh

Jinoos Taghizadeh (born 1971) is a multidisciplinary Iranian artist, storyteller, activist, and writer with nearly 30 years of international experience. A graduate of the University of Tehran in Sculpture and Literature Drama from Niavaran College of Art, she has exhibited her works at renowned venues, including the Chelsea Museum, Maxi Museum, White Chapel Gallery, and Wiesbaden Kunsthalle. Since 2001, she has built a reputation as an incisive art critic and essayist, contributing to cultural discourse through her work on the editorial board of TehranAvenue and as chief editor of AftabNet Magazine’s visual arts section since 2013. She also serves on the board of Toronto’s Hafteh monthly magazine. Jinoos’s work interrogates the intersections of art, politics, and collective memory, challenging traditional narratives, inviting dialogue on identity and human rights and walking between various mediums of art and literature.  Her three published books—Non_Dubliners (Ireland), Letters I Never Wrote (Norway), and Memories I Never Had (Iran)—offer compelling insights into these themes, reflecting her commitment to transformative creative practice.