Siavash Kasrai

Siavash Kasrai (Persian: سیاوش کسرائی‎‎; February 25, 1927 in Isfahan – February 8, 1996 in Vienna) was an Iranian poet, literary critic, and novelist. An active supporter of the Communist Tudeh Party of Iran from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s, he distanced himself from its leadership in 1988-90, and turned into an outspoken critic in the mid 1990s.

Life

Siavash Kasrai was born into a family of officials, some (his uncle Abdol-Karim Kasrai in particular) with a serious interest in literature. In Tehran since his early age, he received his primary education at Adab School, and secondary education at the Military College and Dar ul-Funun. He graduated from the University of Tehran, Faculty of Law, in 1950, and did his military service at the Military Academy.

In the early 1950s, Kasrai served at the Iranian Health Cooperation Agency, created under Truman’s Point Four Program, and headed two of the agency’s periodicals (Behdashte Hamegani dar Nahiyeye Dariaye Khazar, Zendegi o Behdasht). From the mid 1950s to the early 1980s, Kasrai almost continuously served in government bodies focusing on housing or urban development: the Iranian Bank of Housing, the Housing Agency, and the Ministry of Housing and Urbanization. In the early to mid 1970s, in a forced leave from the Ministry, he worked a few years as chief copywriter for the Behshahr Industrial Group. In addition to his regular employment, Kasrai occasionnally taught literature at the Universities of Tehran and Zahedan.