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| Samad Behrangi, writer, educator and social activist (1939 - 1968) |
Samad Behrangi was born in Tabriz in 1939 and graduated from the two-year teacher training program in 1957. Until his death in the River Aras in August 1968, he taught in the villages of Azerbaijan. He published children's stories, Turkish folklore, and critical pedagogy, and translated contemporary Turkish literature into Persian.
In a context where Turkish was stigmatized and discouraged, with reading and writing primarily accepted only in Farsi as the dominant language, Behrangi’s work was particularly significant. He not only sought to elevate the status of Turkish but also to preserve and promote its rich cultural heritage.
Gholam Hossein Sa‘edi eloquently captures Samad Behrangi's dedication, stating:
He loved his mother tongue [Turkish, the language spoken in Azerbaijan] more than one could imagine and was extremely skilled in reading and writing it. He wrote and published.
He was not afraid of problems; he was only surprised that he didn’t have the right to publish in his mother tongue. Determined to collect Azerbaijan's folklore, he visited all the little villages and isolated towns, demonstrating the strength that could be found in a language through his collections. At the same time, he prepared a book of poems based on this folklore, but once again, publication was prevented. He then decided to collect Turkish folk tales of Azerbaijan, and with the cooperation of his closest friend, Behruz Dehqani, he fulfilled this ambition, translating two volumes of the tales into Persian for publication. (1976: xviii–xix)
Reference:
Fāz̤ilī, Niʻmat A., et al. Politics of Culture in Iran: Anthropology, Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century. vol. 6, Routledge, London;New York;, 2006.