The opening event of the International Literature Festival Berlin 2016 was the »The Poetry Project«, in which Ghani Ataei, Mahdi Hashemi, Kahel Kashmiri, Samilullah Rasouli, Shahzamir Hataki and Yasser Niksada from Afghanistan and Iran recited their poems. The actress Lydia Schamschula and SPIEGEL Foreign Correspondent Susanne Koelbl read the poems in German.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reviewed the performance as one of »touching and dramatic poems that give an idea of the journey and bring us closer to the people who wrote them ... Testimonies of the current humanitarian crises. But their culture is also transmitted through poetry, because - although some of the young poets only wrote their first poems and have not always enjoyed a continuous education - the texts reflect the cultural tradition they originate from. Similar to the better-known Persian style of poetry, these poems are narrative and prosaic without losing their poetic character.« FAZ
