Baharak Salehniya (Iranian actress and writer living in Türkiye)
Baharak Salehniya ‘s Born 1985, in Iran. Studied “Film Directing” at Azad University. Baharak one of the high-ranked graduates in acting masterclasses by the legendary performance maestro “Hamid Smandarian” in 2005 along with maestro “Mehdi Fakhimzade” courses in acting for cinema and television. Baharak has a background acting for the greatest Iranian filmmakers such as “Majid Majidi” and “Mehdi Fakhimzade” with more than 150 episodes of TV series and about 10 films as the leading character in her journey. She chose to leave her homeland in 2016, and since then she is living in Istanbul/Turkey running a production studio, Persis Films as a co-founder.
Exclusive interview
Mrs. Baharak Salehniya , thank you for giving your time to Izmir Times magazine. As an Iranian, we are proud to see the success of artists like you outside of Iran.
Living in Iran comes with different challenges compared to other countries, especially for women and then more specifically for artists and actors, this is obvious to everyone.
Living conditions, progress and success for Iranians who immigrate face new and sometimes difficult challenges that they may not have experienced such challenges in their own country and that an Iranian woman bravely faced these challenges and succeeded. It is admirable.
I am very grateful for your kindness and I am happy to talk to you… as you said, unfortunately, living and working in Iran currently brings many challenges for everyone, especially women, and immigration may bring peace and mental security, but Another way increases challenges, especially for an artist who has no place to shine like in his homeland, and art with all its boundlessness originates from the culture and motherland, and when you are outside your country, everything becomes more difficult. At almost any stage you are in, you have to start from the beginning, you become like a baby who has to learn language, learn to speak and grow little by little and stand on his feet and give himself an existence, and this is not a small thing and it brings many difficulties. I have been struggling with these challenges, but I try to make a way myself if there is no way, and I think this is the only way to escape.
Baharak Salehniya, you were born in Khordad, Khordads are known to be like spring rain, sometimes soft and cheerful, sometimes hard and crushing. Perhaps one of the secrets of success and resilience for you is to have these qualities that you can express yourself at different times and places, whatever suits the conditions of that moment.
are you agree:
I think I have high flexibility and of course it helps that I adapt myself to the situation and find a way to move, it could be because of my youth (of course, I saw many youths who are not like that) but of course I don’t blame myself for the rain. Spring, which I liken to a spring wind, the spring wind has ups and downs, it doesn’t burn too much and it doesn’t become a storm, and it moves slowly and is kind to the flowers, it is not too hard and crushing.
Since I think you are a social and passionate person, I wanted to tell you a little about your social and social challenges. Anyway, our social Turkish culture is very different from Turkish people’s social culture. Family, friend, wife, father, mother, child, association, partnership and other meanings have different signals and different behaviors in Iranian culture and you have definitely experienced such differences. I don’t want to see everything as a problem or a challenge because life is full of these issues that must be faced throughout life. These topics are comical for some people, difficult for some and unbearable for some, which ultimately causes them to be isolated from society.
Baharak Salehniya’s challenges in Türkiye
Baharak Salehniya What cultural challenges did you face?
Were you able to communicate with Turkish people?
Has your friendship with Turkish colleagues, boyfriends and girlfriends been successful?
I love Turkey and its people, especially Istanbul, which I fell in love with. I think Istanbul is really a magical city that you can draw stories from for years… Unfortunately, I didn’t have many Turkish colleagues or friends, but I didn’t encounter any problems in socializing with them. I don’t think they are difficult people. And they have a kind heart, of course, there are good and bad everywhere in the world, and I try to remove the borders at least in my mind and consider humans as the only inhabitants of the earth… I think we do not have much cultural difference with the people of Turkey, and we have many similar habits and interests, and one of the reasons I feel much less at home here and I don’t intend to go further away from here. That’s the only thing that always bothers me is the language… no matter how much you learn, it’s still not enough to communicate from the depths of thought and feeling, and you don’t have enough words. For me, I always define myself through conversation and my mother tongue is my tool for life.
Women’s section.ir Book’s (Baharak Salehniya)
In 2022, you wrote a play called the women’s section of Dat IR, which is considered one of your achievements and successes in Turkey. Turkish has also attracted many languages. Recently, this play has been published as a book in Farsi and Istanbul Turkish by OASIS Publishing House in Türkiye.
As an Iranian female artist, it is obvious to everyone what problems exist in Iran for the activities of artists, especially female artists. In other conversations, you mentioned that you immigrated so that you could find yourself and be yourself, right?
My question is, what challenges did you face in Turkey in order to achieve these achievements both in acting and in writing, in the face of the pressure with which you were forced to immigrate in order to achieve and fulfill your dreams, and how did you bravely achieve this? Did you fight the achievements?
This being oneself is a very deep and important thing, which unfortunately we were not allowed to do in our own land and we always had to wear an imposed mask on our face to continue our life and work, which of course we see these days that many women and girls of our country They are tearing these masks with courage and courage, and I am proud of each and every one of them that they are their true selves and scream with all the opposition and abuse, and what a more beautiful voice than this, the play “Women’s Section of IR” from the eternal desire. My desire to write and deal with the difficulty of being a woman in Iran stems from the coercion and pressure that countless women in Iran have to endure, and how many women are struggling with life and death in silence and ignorance. I always support them. I think and when I start writing, they are in my mind and I know I have to write and talk about them… How hard it can be to be a woman, and being an Iranian woman is much more difficult and complicated…
My play has four episodes and four monologues of four Iranian women who describe their lives and how they died, and we had about 12 performances in different theaters in Istanbul, and even though the performances were in Persian with Turkish superscripts, Strangely, the Turks were crying and laughing with us and were impressed and were very supportive and supportive, but the conditions of theater performance in Turkey are very different from Iran, and for us who are used to rehearsing and performing back-to-back for one month or two months, performing Once a month, or at best once a week, it was very difficult in different theaters, and we almost couldn’t do the theater performance as we should, and the performances didn’t continue, but I’m happy that Bilgili Publications has changed the terms of publishing the text of the play. It is available in Farsi and Turkish languages and currently it can be ordered in Turkey and Europe through the oasis website, and soon the ways to order from Iran will be provided.
For me, the book “Women of IR” is the beginning of a new path that I was always looking for in myself. Writing has been my habit since childhood and my eternal dream. I am usually always busy writing something, and the book is an inseparable part of my life. And the people and their stories keep me alive… I am still trying to find my true self and live it, and I feel that this play is a good step in my career because of its uncensored and realness, and it is only a boldness. that I spent to continue and I continue to do so, although it is slow and silent, but I do not get tired of being on the move to achieve my goals, life is always full of challenges, this is the nature of life, but I believe that there is no such thing as impossible.
Please tell us a part of the women’s section of the book that represents the book or a part of the book that you like:
Many women live in my head… happy women, sad women, colorful women, gray women, lonely women, tired women, women in pain and hopeful women; Women who are bound by borders and women who destroy their borders… women whose voices are choked in the throat and women who cry out their silence… wounded but hopeful women, women who sing the song of life in the swallow of death… (From author’s note)
Are you writing another book?
I am currently writing a screenplay and after that I will probably start writing a story that I left halfway.
Do you think you have achieved everything you dreamed of?
Are you thinking of a new program or a new achievement?
Do you have a new movie coming?
I definitely haven’t reached it, I’m just at the beginning of my dreams, I have a long way to go and of course a lot of ideas and hopes… I’m thinking of making a short film, and writing and writing and writing is at the top of my schedule right now. I may have a new movie on the way, but it’s better not to talk about it for now.
The private life of celebrities is attractive to their fans and people are always curious about their lives. that…
- Do they have a partner or not? Are they planning to get married or not?
- Are you single or married?
- what do they eat what do they wear
- How is their physical condition, etc…
- Some people make their favorite celebrities their daily life models to the extent that the lifestyle of those celebrities becomes a lifestyle for their audience.
Sometimes these curiosities become controversial and sometimes they are annoying for celebrities. Sometimes phrases are searched in search engines, some of them are really funny, and some of them are shameful, of course, with the research that I did on the Google search engine, there are also a series of similar curiosities that nothing, the search for this name in recent months It has faced an increase of 267%, anyway, when you are sober, these are also with you.
Now, I don’t want to ask a specific direct question, anyway, it’s called Roshe (private life), but if you want your audience to know something about your private life, you can tell us here.
It’s better not to talk about Google search 🤦🏻♀️ In the first stage, yes, I have a partner, I think this is the most curiosity, in fact, now, thanks to the virtual space, almost nothing is hidden, everyone knows who is where, what he eats, what he does, no matter how elite I am. I try to adapt myself to the virtual space, but I don’t succeed. I become active from time to time, but I get tired and withdraw as if this space is not my type or I don’t know it. I was born on June 1, 1364 in the beautiful city of Rasht, I grew up in Karaj and before immigrating I lived in Tehran and now I live in Istanbul. I got interesting myself.
Final word of Baharak Salehniya
The topics you discussed were very interesting and attractive, and we wish that you will always be successful in fulfilling your dreams, and we wish that the conditions for the women of our country become such that we witness the flourishing of a female artist every day. We are waiting for your further achievements and successes, and it is a matter of pride that we see the emergence of successful women like you, Baharak Salehniya…
Thank you, this conversation was interesting for me too. From the bottom of my heart, I wish love and security for the women of my land, Iran and all the women of this earth, and for all the people living on the earth peace, peace and equality, stay strong and victorious.
