Ahmad Khodâdâdeh (1883-1955), author of the first “working class” novel in modern kurdish literature, was born in 1883 in Shirkhân, Dinvar district, 70 km north east of Kermânshâh,located in East Kurdistan,where he died poor and alone in 1955.Khodâdâdeh’s father was a minor land owner, a peasant.little is known about his life.the author wrote this work while his city and birthplace were still occupied by Iran.but in the field of fiction, this is his only novel of special importance.the novel was also translated and published in Russian in 1935.he was also a political activist and a member of an opposition party.
The Workers in Bleak Times (Ahmad ali Khodadadeh) Published in the second decade of the twentieth century, According to its author Ahmad Ali Khodadadeh, this novel is more than just a story, it is about the living conditions of Kurdistan around a century and a half ago. The novel depicts the simple life of peasants and delves into the socio-economic structure of Kurdistan’s eastern provinces between 1895 and 1925. It is a real depiction of how poor peasants lived. Further themes include oppression against them by land owners, insecure roads, lack of sanitation facilities and broken social infrastructures.Women are not quite colorful in this novel as other novels published at that epoch.But in Workers in Bleak Times they work hard and are not confined to the household. Children work from a very young age if they are lucky to survive and grow to be adults.The story is about a dark and sad kurdish society, molded by the administrative apparatus and the vast bureaucracy of the colonialism,and merchants and the clergy. The author also critiques the simpleton behavior of the victims in the society and advocates for a more modern relationship between different forces. He firmly believes that the Shi’ite clergy has played a major role in keeping the indigenous people-And even the people of the enemy and alien society-backward and ignorant of their history as well as global developments.
---------------It should be noted that in the city of Kermanshah there is a very small population of the Fars people. They are not natives and Kurds, but because of living in that city have long spoken Kurdish. Also, various governments have long tried to To Persianize this city through religion and culture and to brainwash the political people of the region.