 Selim Matar was born in 1956 in a family that immigrated to Baghdad from the south of Iraq.He becomes member of the Iraqi communist party and leaves his country at the end of 1978, after the failure of what is known as the “national confrontation” between the ruling party Baas and the communists.After three years of ceaseless wanderings in the Middle-East, he finally settles down in Geneva at the end of 1981.