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“All the stupid and ridiculous threats the regime issues against Israel have never influenced me and will never influence me,” he said.

Feili, who has written nine books, many of them openly discussing homosexuality, escaped to Turkey last year when the Iranian government’s threats against him and his family became unbearable.

He is in Israel to see his latest novella, “I Will Grow, I Will Bear Fruit … Figs,” staged as a play in Hebrew in a Tel Aviv theater. While his always supportive family remains in Iran, he said he hopes to stay in Israel permanently.

Feili has nurtured a fascination with Israel since he was a youngster, when he began watching films about the Holocaust and started learning about the Torah. He has awith various government ministries and security issues, Liberman explained.

She said he was finally granted a three-month visa, but that he has begun a process to remain in Israel permanently on humanitarian grounds.

Feili’s novella, which is being produced in Israel by Ido Dagan, portrays the unrequited love of two Iranian soldiers fighting in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Dagan said Feili is the first Iranian he has ever met.

“There are differences, big differences in terms of worldview, values, language and our background, but we connected because of his desire to taste freedom,” Dagan said. He said Feili’s Israeli friends have already come up with a nickname for him: Queen of Israel, a character from his latest book.

Feili said he was surprised by how boisterous Israelis can be and