born 1956 in Basra, Iraq, was detained and tortured as a dissident in his home country. He fled to Germany in 1980 when the Iraq-Iran war broke out. In 1988 he completed his studies in German literature in Hamburg and later his studies in Spanish literature in Madrid. He worked as the cultural correspondent for the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat for many years and regularly contributes for newspapers and magazines such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, NZZ, taz, and Der Spiegel. He has published numerous novels and short stories and lives and works as a freelance author and journalist in Berlin.
