Mahtab Ghorbani, a poet and writer exiled in France, was born in Tehran and grew up in a family opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Her father was imprisoned when she was six years old. He studied Persian literature in Iran and was expelled from the university. He was imprisoned three times for writing and fighting for equality between men and women. He was not allowed to publish his books and finally left Iran in 2016 with his daughter. Mahtab Ghorban has published three books to date. She is currently working on a novel that tells the 25-year history of women political prisoners in Iran and is fighting against the Iranian regime as a human rights activist. She will continue writing this book in neimënster, as part of a residency in the Nora program. "Mahtab Ghorbani and so many other women prisoners, determined and courageous, have rebuilt themselves and resumed their fight against obscurantism and for freedoms by choosing exile as a place to take control of their destiny and continue their struggles. In this field, Mahtab Ghorbani has demonstrated his fighting abilities and his emancipating vitality to become a symbol of a committed youth, a positive and constructive force. Supporting and backing up courageous and generous souls in the service of freedom and human dignity seems to me to be a moral duty for all individuals and institutions that defend the cause of women and the fundamental rights of the human person." -Jala Alavinia