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Fiction

Fiction

Ammar 404 is dead. Long live Ammar 404!

Tunisia is in 133rd place out of 180 in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2014. The journalist and human rights activist Afef Abrougui writes here about the phenomenon Ammar 404, which...

Text: Afef Abrougui May 06 2014
Fiction

Heckling the powerful in Belarus

Freedom of speech is greatly limited in Belarus. Since 2006 the country has been included in the Reporters Without Borders’ list of ”Internet enemies.” The Belarusian author and blogger Jauhen...

Text: Jauhen Lipkovich May 06 2014
Fiction

N’existe Pas

For many years Bruce Sterling has been writing about the battle for freedom on the internet, a subject he first wrote about in the highly acclaimed book The Hacker Crackdown in 1992. In this book...

Text: Bruce Sterling May 06 2014
Fiction

To write and to live in the shadow

The first blog was started in Iran in the beginning of 2001. Since then, the blog culture within the country has grown and there are over 70,000 blogs by Iranians, both inside and outside the country...

Text: Marzieh Rasouli May 06 2014
Fiction

Ludu and I

1946 saw the establishment of a regime-critical daily newspaper called Ludu. Today, it is a natural institution for dissident writers in Burma. Despite the constant pressure and threats it received...

Text: Bo Bo Lansin March 13 2014
Fiction

Prison memoirs

Ma Thida is a Burmese human rights activist, author and currently chair of PEN Myanmar. In October 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for constituting “a danger to public order, and having...

Text: Ma Thida March 13 2014
Fiction

Notes from the provincial town of N

Anyone who believes that today's Russia is on the wrong track also hopes for political alternatives. However, the Russian opposition has often been fragmented, and how do you protest against a...

Text: Igor Saveliev December 19 2013
Fiction

Iran: The day we pack our bags

For many years, author Roya Zarrin held a popular yoga class in her hometown in Iran. But since it was also a place where forbidden literature could be discussed fairly openly, it attracted the...

Text: Roya Zarrin October 24 2013
Fiction

Egypt: The fanatic heart

The situation in the divided Egypt is full of uncertainty—also for those living in the midst of the crisis like author Somaya Ramadan: “How do you act on the courage of your own convictions if you do...

Text: Somaya Ramadan October 24 2013
Fiction

Syria: The barricades

The woman with the expressive face There she stands with a look of intense surprise on her face on an ordinary morning...

Text: Hazim Alazmah October 24 2013
Fiction

Syria: Thirteen scenes from hell

Scene 1 “Look at those aged female paratroopers—they get promoted and are now called lionesses, the armed forces’...

Text: Housam Al-Mosilli October 23 2013
Fiction

Drunkenness

Author Saeed Tabatabaee was one year old when the Islamic Revolution took place. He belongs to the generation of young people who has grown up in the regime's big brother society—always guarded...

Text: Saeed Tabatabaee June 10 2013
Fiction

La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha

Poet and literary critic Víctor Manuel Mendiola looks with dismay at what is happening in his home country of Mexico. In a very personal reflection, he recalls memories of times long past—the Mexico...

Text: Víctor Manuel Mendiola March 09 2013

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