“Texas, Quartz notes, has one of the highest incarceration rates in the U.S., with .5% of the state’s population in prison.”
censorship
Make Noise & Beauty on July 28, a Day of Creativity for Ashraf Fayadh
“Let us be loud enough that he hears us.”
Ashraf Fayadh Poem Read Before UN Human Rights Council
“We have of course, raised Fayadh’s case with this Council before, as we have been raising, like many, the cases of Raif Badawi, Waleed Abulkhair, Ali al-Nimr and others.”
PEN America: ‘Detention of Poet Dareen Tatour Signals Worrying Escalation in Israeli Repression’
“Her detention, one in a string of recent arrests of writers and journalists, signals a worrying expansion in Israeli law enforcement policy to silence views the government deems unsavory.”
May 12, International Day of Readings for Egyptian Novelist Ahmed Naji
“The readings aim to show solidarity with Ahmed and to raise awareness about his current situation and that of writers and journalists across Egypt.”
Dareen Tatour: ‘I Will Not Leave My Country’
“They signed for me
And turned me into
A file, forgotten”
Musical Group Mashrou’ Leila Banned from Jordan, Allegedly for Endorsing ‘Gender Equality and Sexual Freedom’
“We denounce the systemic prosecution of advocates of sexual and religious freedom.
“We denounce the censorship of artists anywhere in the world.”
Translations of Ashraf Fayadh’s ‘Instructions Within’ Forthcoming in French, English
“Also: Monday, March 21 will be World Poetry Day. To mark this day, PEN International plans to campaign on behalf of Fayadh[.]”
Popular Egyptian Cartoonist Islam Gawish Arrested and Released
“At noon [on Sunday], a force of over 10 security personnel stormed the social media marketing company where Gawish works and arrested him, confiscating his laptop and other computers owned by the organization[.]”
Eşref Feyyâd: ‘Petrolün Kan Üzerindeki Faziletleri’
“Siyah petrol kürleri
Dolaşıyor hücrelerinde
Ve sağaltıyor kusarak kurtulamadığın şeyi.”
Egyptian Novelist Ahmed Naji and Editor Tarek al-Taher Will Go Back to Court in ‘Public Morals’ Case
As Naji wrote on Facebook: We’ll start again from scratch and reinvent the wheel in order to explain what’s creative freedom and what’s literature again.
Novelist Ahmed Naji and Editor Acquitted in ‘Public Morality’ Case
Novelist and journalist Ahmed Naji, author of The Use of Life, and Akhbar al-Adab editor Tarek al-Taher were both acquitted on Saturday of charges of “harming public morality.”
