Milad Zam is an Iranian refugee and a graduate of the Master's programme in Finance at VU. During his time at a refugee camp in the Netherlands, he wrote his novel Stateless, inspired by his own experiences, his brother's tragic fate, and the stories of Iranians deprived of their fundamental human rights and freedoms.
Milads brother, Ruhollah Zam, was a prominent journalist who was deceived into travelling from France to Iraq, kidnapped and taken to Iran, and later executed by the Iranian regime. Milad himself spent 100 nights in solitary confinement as part of efforts to pressure his brother into stopping his journalistic activities.
The book Stateless brings together Milad's and his brother's experiences with real stories he collected from other Iranians who have suffered oppression. The book belongs to Iranian literature in exile, a tradition in which writers and artists who cannot freely publish their work in Iran seek to preserve the country's rich literary heritage and give a voice to those silenced by repression.
The novel took shape during Milad's psychological treatment while he was living at the refugee camp. His psychologist will attend the event to share how the writing process began and developed during their sessions.
During this gathering musicians will perform with the Iranian percussion instrument called the daf. The music is closely associated with the spiritual traditions inspired by the famous Persian poet and mystic Molana (Rumi).