Basir Ahang is a poet, journalist and actor born in Ghazni, Afghanistan and currently living in the UK. He studied Persian History and Literature at Kabul University and International relations at Padua University. He began his career writing for several local newspapers, founding and working as a radio producer for Radio Malistan and for many other media in Kabul.
Due to his journalistic work Basir received death threats that forced him to leave the country. In 2008 Basir arrived in Italy where he lived as a political refugee until he obtained the Italian citizenship. In 2009 Basir went to Greece, with the aim of documenting the situation of refugees.
There he shot the documentary La Voce di Patrasso, part of which was broadcasted by the Italian national television “RAI 3”. Basir Ahang has also collaborated with the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UHNCR). Some of his articles have been published on BBC Persian , Deutsche Welle, Radio Zamaneh, and on different Italian media.
Basir is also involved in the field of poetry and cinema. As an actor, he played a role in the short film The Guest, by the director Amin Wahidi winner of the 2014 City of Venice award, and as a protagonist in the movie Sembra mio figlio “Just like my son”, by Costanza Quatriglio. This movie was screened at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2018 and in the Italian cinemas in 2019. Many of his poems have been translated into Italian, English, and Spanish. In 2014 he participated to the International Festival of Sassari Ottobre in Poesia, winning the special critics prize for a poem in competition.
In 2015 he released his first book of poetry Sogni di tregua (Gilgamesh Editions) and in the same year he took part to the International Poetry Festival of Medellín in Colombia . In 2018 Basir participated as a speaker at the International Journalism Festival of Perugia, in Italy. In 2019 he was invited in China, where he took part in the International Poetry Festival of Chengdu.