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Theme: Writers in Prison

Editorial

Messages of Solidarity, Writings of Hope

Around the world, writers take great risks by daring to write texts that oppressive rulers do not want to read. Writers...

Text: Elisabeth Löfgren and Hanna Nordell November 14 2024
Poetry

(2020–2023)

In October 2019, PEN Belarus started monitoring violations of rights in the cultural sphere. Since the stolen election in 2020 Belarus has experienced an unprecedented wave of repression against civil...

Text: Taciana Niadbaj November 14 2024
Poetry

Poem from Prison

In November 2020, Kacharyna Andreyeva covered a demonstration honoring the memory of artist Raman Bandarenka, who was beaten to death during a protest. Thousands of people were arrested and Andrejeva...

Text: Katsjaryna Andrejeva November 14 2024

Theme: Woman Life Freedom - Voices from an upprising

Editorial

Zhina means a new life

September 16th 2024 marks the second anniversary of the death of Zhina Mahsa Amini, who was arrested and beaten by Iran's morality police for not wearing her hijab properly. Her death was the starting...

Parvin Ardalan September 19 2024
Editorial

It’s urgent: be our voice!

On September 16, 2022, a picture of Kurdish Jina Mahsa Amini connected to a life support machine in a hospital bed was...

By Marall Nasiri, Swedish actor and director at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm November 28 2022
Article

How We Stand On and On

From the 1910 Women's Movement to Jîna Mahsa Amini: Over a Century of Struggle for Women's Rights and liberations in Iran. This text is written under pseudonym.

Farah Farnum September 18 2024
Article

Message from Narges Mohammadi

Message from Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, on the Second Anniversary of Mahsa Jîna Amini's Death and the Start of the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ Movement.

Narges Mohammadi September 16 2024
Article

Letter from Evin Prison

Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian writer, journalist and human rights defender. She fights for women’s rights, freedom of...

Text: Narges Mohammadi September 06 2023
Fiction

Honesty is the best policy!

The author of this short story remains anonymous. She sent the text a few weeks after that the protests had started in September. Whether she is free or behind bars remains unknown to us. The short...

Author: anonymous December 11 2022
Fiction

Our Codename is Jina

On September 13, Mahsa Zhina Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police for wearing her veil the wrong way. On September 16, she died under suspicious circumstances. This was the start of the...

Text: anonymous November 13 2022
Article

A message from Sanandaj

Neda is a Kurdish woman and human rights activist who participates in and leads the protests in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj in Iran. The regime's forces have occupied the center of the city and the...

Text: Neda from Kurdistan November 04 2022

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