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Theme: Nationalism and freedom of speech

Fiction

The Hybrid War and the Poetics of Resistance

In Russia it is not merely the war that has a hybrid nature—similar contradictory and elusive characteristics may also describe the state of justice, freedom, and censorship within the country. In his...

Text: Lev Rubinstein September 17 2016
Interview

The Same Silence as Before

In Turkey on September 9 Ahmed Altan, writer, journalist and former chief editor, was detained along with his brother. In an interview by Alev Yaman made just before Altan’s detention Altan claims...

Text: Alev Yaman September 17 2016
Article

Media’s Role in Promoting Nationalism

The broadcasting from the European football championship this past summer provided Hungary’s President Viktor Orbán with yet another opportunity to reach out with his xenophobic and EU resistant...

Text: Eszter Babarczy September 17 2016
Article

Indian Nationalism in a New Guise

A united India was envisaged at the time of Independence in 1947—an inclusive and pluralistic country that would respect all the religious denominations. These past years, however, have seen this...

Text: Salil Tripathi September 17 2016
Article

"The fight is a part of the Polish ethos"

In Poland nationalism has grown into a thriving official ideology. The regime is demanding that the citizens defend all internal affairs and both the state and the church remain silent on issues of...

Text: Lidia Ostalowska September 17 2016
Article

The Truth the Flag Conceals

For his journalistic achievements Can Dündar has recently been awarded the Swedish National Press Club’s Freedom of Speech Award in memory of Anna Politkovskaya. After having been prosecuted for his...

Text: Can Dündar September 17 2016
Article

A Frozen Soviet Fragment

Belarus is often called Europe’s last dictatorship. However, oppression within the country does not adhere to the more common nationalistic model—quite the opposite.

Text: Dmitri Plax September 17 2016

Theme: Cities of refuge

Editorial

Refuge in resistance to terror

Already in 1997 Jacques Derrida held a prophetic lecture. This was during the International Parliament of Writers’...

Text: Ola Larsmo March 09 2016
Article

What does the work of a refuge coordinator look like?

According to the agreement with ICORN, each refuge city has to designate a coordinator responsible for the project. What does this role entail? Jasmina Rihar, coordinator for Ljubljana City of Refuge...

Text: Jasmina Rihar March 10 2016
Fiction

I will go back to my country one day

Syrian poet Housam Al-Mosilli was forced to flee Syria in 2012 after having been imprisoned and tortured three times. He lived in exile in Istanbul for four years while waiting to find a refuge. On...

Text: Housam Al-Mosilli March 10 2016
Interview

Peace songs for Sudan

Month after month, the Sudanese musician Abazar Hamid submitted his peace and love songs to the government’s music monitoring committee which mostly censored and rejected them. Songs dealing with...

Text: Nicky Armstrong, Christopher Finnigan March 10 2016
Interview

Darkness over Mosul – about journalism and ISIS in Iraq

For Iraqi journalist and writer Nawzat Shamdin, the meaning of the word home has come to be redefined during the two years he has lived in Skien, Norway. For over a decade, through his work as a...

Text: Afrah Nasser March 10 2016
Interview

Refuge writers due to sexual orientation

For Somali writer Ahmed Mohamed, being gay and writing about it in a strongly homophobic environment became more and more dangerous. Finally, through ICORN, he managed to leave and become Skellefteå’s...

Text: Daniel Gustafsson March 10 2016
Poetry

From Havana to Reykjavik

Cuban poet Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was forced to leave his home country in 2013 after having been denounced as a “traitor” to his country and accused of carrying out “counter-revolutionary” activities...

Text: Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo March 10 2016
Article

The impossibility and invincibility of ICORN

There are today 52 cities of refuge around the world. Helge Lunde, director of ICORN (International Cities of Refuge Network), the organization that coordinates the world’s cities of refuge for...

Text: Helge Lunde March 10 2016
Article

“My city, which is not mine”

The situation for an increasing number of Russian intellectuals became impossible following the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down in Moscow on February 27, 2015. This...

Text: Anzhelina Polonskaya March 10 2016

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