Mehdi Akhavan Sales was a famous Iranian poet and music researcher. Akhavan Sales, who went by his pen name, M. Omid, composed poetry mainly addressing contemporary social and political issues.

After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Akhavan Sales was imprisoned for approximately a year. Even when he was released from prison, he faced government restrictions and violent oppression.

During his time in prison and in the days following his release, Akhavan Sales wrote two books, “Pāeez dar Zendān / Autumn in Prison” and “Dar Hayāte Koochak Pāeez dar Zendān / In the Autumn's Small Yard in Prison.”

Mehdi Akhavan Sales was arrested twice, within a short period of time, shortly after the August 19 (28 Mordad) 1953, coup d'état.

On August 19, 1953, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi staged a coup d’etat against the democratically-elected government of then prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh. In the aftermath of the coup, many writers and intellectuals were arrested, including Mehdi Akhavan Sales.

Many accounts detailing his arrest were published. The most authoritative account comes from Taghi Khavari, an Iranian poet from the province of Khorasan, who spoke about Akhavan Sales’ arrest in an interview with Ettela’at newspaper. In the interview, Khavari quoted Akhavan Sales, saying: “After the coup, the arrests started happening. I was arrested because I was a moderate member of the Tudeh [Communist] Party, but I wasn’t even part of its lower echelons. So when they arrested the leaders and the upper echelons of the party, and they realized that I wasn’t an important member, in the party’s hierarchy, they released me. However, a short time later, they arrested and imprisoned me once again. I was surprised and I said to myself, ‘Why have they arrested me again?’ I spent a few days of uncertainty in prison, until, one day, I was taken to Commander Timur Bakhtiar’s office for interrogation. He said to me ‘Did you compose a poem against his Highness Homayouni [Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi]’ to which I said ‘I wrote no such poem and I deny that accusation.’ Without any further ado, he ordered that I be sent back to my cell. A few days later, I was taken to him again for questioning. The commander showed me a poem written in the handwriting of Nima Yooshij [another contemporary Persian poet] below which was written ‘Akhavan’. The commander then said ‘Look, your leader (Nima) has explicitly written that this is your poem. You said that it wasn’t and you continue to deny it!' When I recognised Nima’s handwriting, I inevitably took up the matter with the old man [Nima]. I later found out that Jalal al-Ahmad [a prominent contemporary Iranian novelist and socio-political critic whose work, Gharbzadegi / Westoxification, famously critiqued western influence in Iran] had told Nima, ‘If you go to prison with this frail body, leave it to the young to be tempered like steel [i.e. to resist interrogations]. He chose to implicate me.”

A second account of Mehdi Akhavan Sales’ arrest comes from Morteza Kakhi, another poet from Khorasan and a professor at the University of Tehran, who was a close friend of Akhavan Sales. In part of an interview with the weekly newspaper, Negah Panjshanbeh, Khaki spoke about Akhavan Sales’ arrest, saying: “Akhavan Sales had a special relationship with Nima, that was different and unlike anyone else. Firstly, on a personal level, Nima treated Akhavan Sales unjustifiably badly and after the 28 Mordad coup d'état. Nima spoke out [against Akhavan Sales] just as the security services were accusing Nima of being a member of the Tudeh Party and a leftist. Nima said: ‘I am not a leftist in any shape or form. These tedious individuals who gather around me like Akhavan [Sales] and [Ahmad] Shamlou are members of the Tudeh Party of Iran’. Well, those words from Nima hurt and shocked Akhavan Sales more than any others.”

Likewise, in Ahmad Shamlou’s book, “Ayda in the Mirror,” Shamlou spoke about the incident, saying: “When I was in the Prison of the Third Armored Division with Akhavan [Sales], I was barely tortured. However, Akhavan was severely beaten and subjected to brutal torture sessions.” Morteza Khaki spoke about Shamlou’s account, saying: “Now, why was it more difficult for Akhavan [Sales]? Perhaps one of the reasons was that Shamlou’s father was a colonel and, as such, they respected Ahmad a bit more. Despite all of the brutalities and cruelties that Nima caused these two poets to face, both of whom were among his most important and loyal followers, I must say that the most important factor that cemented and ensured that Nima, as an individual, would be remembered throughout history as part of Iran’s literary movement, was the efforts of Shamlou and Akhavan [Sales]. You see, I was present at the very moment that this movement was taking shape, brick by brick, I grew up with it.”

In another interview with Khabar Online, Khaki also said: “Akhavan once said to me that he wrote a satirical verse about Nima on the wall of his prison cell which said ‘To me Nima’s mother … revealed, the leader of new poetry’ [Nima was known for a style of poetry which he popularized which became known as new poetry]. In any case, we all know that Nima didn’t show much faith in his students and he considered himself to be far superior to them. Akhavan’s great work on [Nima’s style of] ‘new poetry’ made Nima famous. Nima personally was not paid much attention in the beginning because the classical poets were dominant throughout that period and they didn’t take Nima’s new poetry seriously. Instead they called Nima’s poetry and use of language ‘slow’ and ‘stuttery’ [new poetry broke the traditional rules and meters of classical poetry which allowed him to alter the length of lines].

Eventually, after enduring a year in prison and after he was abandoned by the leaders of the Tudeh Party, Mehdi Akhavan Sales was forced to write a poem for the Pahlavi government. After submitting a statement of remorse, Akhavan Sales was granted an immediate release from prison. 

In 1956, after his release from prison, Akhavan Sales wrote Zemestān / Winter, a book of poetry in which he described the victims of the coup. It became his most famous piece of poetry and many have called it a masterpiece.

Both before and after the Islamic Revolution, Akhavan Sales avoided becoming too close to those in power just as he avoided joining the ranks of the revolutionaries. Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was a long-time friend and companion of Akhavan Sales and, in a meeting with officials from the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, in 1994, Khamenei said that he had contacted Akhavan Sales after the Islamic Revolution and told him: “Come out to the Revolutionary Square and support the Revolution with your poetry and speeches.” However, Akhavan Sales responded: “This is my belief: that we should be against domination, not support it.” Khamenei hung up the phone and never asked after him or went to see him again until he died.

In a meeting with poets from Mashhad in April 1990, Khamenei spoke about Akhavan Sales, saying: “You couldn’t go and sit with him because he would completely ignore you. You too should completely deny him in every shape and form. You can see that this is a dead end.”

After he rejected Khamenei’s overtures to work together several times, Akhavan Sales faced numerous restrictions on his work and constant obstruction. According to Faraj Sarkohi, an Iranian journalist: “After Akhavan Sales refused to cooperate with Khamenei, he was cornered in the street on a number of occasions and severely beaten. His books were banned from being published for years and his retirement pension was cut off. In a Friday prayer sermon, Khamenei called him ‘nothing’ to which Akhavan composed a poem called, “I Am Nothing and a Little Less.”

Mehdi Akhavan Sales passed away in Tehran on August 26, 1990, he was buried alongside numerous other famous Iranian poets in the Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Cemetery in Tus, Mashhad.