In the poem “Mass Grave,” Hadil Balloul reflects on the illusion of freedom that accompanied the fall of the regime, and the confrontation with the reality of successive dictatorships ruling Syria.
Aliaa Amina Ahmad writes about how women's space in the public sphere in Syria has shrunk amid the upheavals of recent years. By highlighting discrimination, digital violence, and patriarchal power...
In the essay Why Did You Leave Us Behind the Wall?, Mustafa Karahamad examines the political divisions that have shaped Syria since 2025 and explores possible paths forward. By comparing the situation...
Drawing on the literary portrayals of power and violence, found in the works of Shakespeare and Joseph Heller, writer Fatima Khoder examines how similar mechanisms operate in present-day Syria. The...
In periods of political transformation, freedom of expression is often presented as one of the clearest signs of a move toward a more open society. Yet the right to speak does not necessarily...
On International Translation Day, Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour reflects on translation as both a literary and political act. Drawing on her own experience she explores the ethical responsibilities...
”The authorities in our country have chosen to use their subservient press to openly act as intelligence agents, feeding it private information about individuals in order to silence and exact revenge...
Every other Sunday, Baharan Kazemi’s kitchen is crowded with children and their mothers who are keeping a language alive while enjoying coffee and taking part in impromptu language exercises. Through...
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power on 15 August 2021, PEN/Opp publishes a new text by a young Afghan writer who writes under the pen name Roya. Her story is a testament to how the Taliban...
In Belarus, prison authorities systematically confiscate and destroy the literary manuscripts, letters and diary entries of those imprisoned. Lawyer and author Maksim Znak was arrested in September...
Chloe Cheung is born and raised in Hong Kong. She joined the city’s pro-democracy movement when she was 14 years old during the 2019 protests, before going into exile in 2020 to continue her advocacy...
For readers outside Bangladesh, the fall of an autocrat might sound like an ending—the final scene, the credits rolling. Inside the country, it has felt more like the first morning after: disorienting...
The Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine has been occupied by Russia since 2014. Vladyslav Yesypenko was one of the Ukrainian journalists who reported on the situation for the civilian population and the...
Journalist and author Furkan Karabay has been held in pre-trial detention in Türkiye since 15 May 2025. He was officially charged in September with ‘making targets of those who were tasked to combat...
