Afrashte, Muhammad Ali

Born 1908, in Resht; died May 6, 1959, in Sofia. Iranian writer and public figure. Member of the Peoples’ Party of Iran. Gilanian by nationality. Born into a peasant family.

Afrashte worked as grocer, cashier, teacher, actor, driver, sculptor, and correspondent. He emigrated (1949) after the party was banned and took up residence in Bulgaria. His works have been printed since the early 1940’s in democratic periodicals and newspapers. He is the author of satirical verses (the collection Well Said), dramas, and fables. In the years 1951–53 he edited the satirical literary magazine Chelenger, where he published his verses directed against imperialism and domestic reaction.