Who is Müslüm Aslan?
Müslüm Aslan (born 1974, Yandere village, Nusaybin, Mardin Province, Turkey) is a Kurdish poet and writer. He completed his primary and secondary education in Nusaybin but was unable to finish high school due to the political turmoil in southeastern Turkey during the early 1990s. In 1991, he was arrested for political reasons and spent ten years in various prisons, including Diyarbakır, Çankırı, and Kahramanmaraş.
After his release, Aslan devoted himself to literary work. He served as the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine *Ütopya* published in Nusaybin and contributed to the founding of the magazines *Dem* and *Nûbîn*. His poems and essays have appeared in several Kurdish and Turkish literary journals such as *Güney*, *Ütopya*, *Yarati*, *Hayal*, *Tîgrîs*, *Kovara W*, and *Tîroj*.
His published works include *Ayna* (2005), *Rû* (2009), *Nehirler Zindanlara Dökülür* (“Rivers Flow into Prisons”, 2013), *Aram* (2021), and *Nefel* (2024). His poetry often explores themes of imprisonment, resistance, identity, and the human longing for freedom. A member of Kurdish PEN, Aslan writes in both Turkish and Kurdish.
Since 2020, he has been living in exile in Germany, where he continues his literary and cultural activities.