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Cigerxwin was born as Şehmus Hasan in 1903 in Hisar Town (Hesarê) in Gercüş district of Mardin (now Batman). As a result of the start of World War I in 1914, he and his family immigrated to the city of Amude in Syria. Later, he graduated from the Faculty of Theology in this country in 1921 and served as a religious official.
Cegerxwîn moved to Qamishli in 1946 and took part in active politics there. In the same year, he was appointed head of the political structure called Civata Azadî û Yekîtiya Kurd (Freedom Assembly and Kurdish Union). He became a member of the Syrian Communist Party in 1948. Six years later, he declared his candidacy for parliament from this party in order to enter the Syrian Parliament. He left his party in 1957 and founded the Syrian Kurdish Democracy Party together with people from the Azadi (Freedom) organization he had previously founded. He was arrested in Damascus in 1963 for his political views.
He went to Northern Iraq in 1969 and supported the uprising of Mustafa Barzani there. In 1973, he went to Lebanon and published his poetry collections, Kîne Em? He published (Who are we?). In 1976, he secretly went to Syria and spent three years preparing his escape plan to Sweden. Cigerxwîn, who turned 76 when he came to Stockholm, started to publish his other works here. The body of the poet, who died here at the age of 81, was later buried in Qamishli.