Day of the Imprisoned Writer

“Free speech is the bedrock of liberty and a free society. And yes, it includes the right to blaspheme and offend.”

-Ayaan Hirsi Ali

 

Today is the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. Just as we remember veterans on Remembrance Day, it is good for writers and artists and all members of a democratic society, to give pause and thanks for our freedom. Just for today, let us not bellyache on the restrictions we do have. Canada is far from perfect, and censorship still exists. However, today, there are writers in prison around the world for expressing political dissent, uncovering truths and frauds, expressing sexuality, or offending religion. Today religious regimes still torture and put to death people who speak against the regime’s atrocity. We saw this en masse in western culture, for a millennium of executions and imprisonment- the Christian Church burned at the stake anyone who questioned faith or discussed science or progress. This is still happening today- newly Christianized Uganda wants the death penalty for homosexuals and imprisonment for their friends; Dominionist and Reconstructionist groups right here in North America want the death penalty reinstated for gays and adulteresses. All around the world, people with the courage to question or speak up are still oppressed. Sometimes they aren’t saying anything at all, they are simply being- being the wrong religion, being women.

Pen International is one the world’s oldest human rights organizations. Today they ask us to remember the Imprisoned Writer. The Guardian’s Marian Fraser says, “Writers have been sentenced in the past year for hooliganism (Azerbaijan) and defacing a street sign (Georgia). They have been jailed for writing about the environment in Panama and Morocco; handed a three-year sentence for songwriting (Cameroon); a five-year sentence for blogging (Tibet); a 19-year sentence for blogging (Iran). Abducted in Yemen, beaten in Sudan, detained in Mauritania and killed by the dozen in Mexico.”

Here’s a bit of information about PEN International, from their site.

 

“Originally founded in 1921 to promote literature, today International PEN has 145 Centres in 104 countries across the globe. It recognises that literature is essential to understanding and engaging with other worlds; if you can’t hear the voice of another culture how can you understand it?

Our primary goal is to engage with, and empower, societies and communities across cultures and languages, through reading and writing. We believe that writers can play a crucial role in changing and developing civil society. We do this through the promotion of literature, international campaigning on issues such as translation and freedom of expression and improving access to literature at international, regional and national levels.”

http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/

In addition to imprisonment, writers are routinely executed, even today. Authoritarian religious and political regimes like Iran muzzle their citizens, indeed, world citizens, from speaking, for fear of death is not unrealistic if one offends the controlling faith and power. PEN International lobbies on behalf of writers on death row.

International Freedom of Expression Exchange also advocates on behalf of imprisoned writers, artists, and activists.

http://www.ifex.org

 

This year, blogger Hossein Derakhshan, who was arrested upon visiting his homeland Iran from Canada in 2008, received a sentence of 19 years in prison. When I mentioned this human rights atrocity to a colleague, she remarked that we have censorship in western culture too, since a cartoon of a nun in an ice cream ad was deemed offensive and did not run.

I am against all censorship. But it is time to stop hiding our heads in the sand. We do not have it “just as bad.” No one went to prison for 19 years, and there were no editorial offices bombed. There were no assassinations. We must strive for freedom to never, ever go back to the days when we would have

hossein derakhshan

been executed for such an ad, or other offenses. But it diminishes the severity of the human rights atrocities that keep this young man, and many others, silent. Hossein’s crime was writing in favour of some systems of Israel government, even though he defended Iran in his bloggings. He also helped teach writers how to blog in Farsi, thus unleashing a whole host of unruly expressions in the blogosphere.Hossein was convicted for collaborating with “enemy states and of propaganda against the Islamic systems” and ““promoting counterrevolutionary cells and insulting Islamic sanctities.”

 

As for myself, I write frequently about nitwit Christian ministers, and never fear threat of death or jail. We have a long way to go, but we have come so far, and this freedom must be extended to all writers and thinkers all over the world.

And yes, this does mean that uber-conservatives whom I loathe have the same rights as I do to say what they wish. They do not, however, have the right to claim falsehoods as truth, or to torture people who don’t agree with them, and neither do I.

Today, do some googling about writers in prison, and censorship through the ages. Consider donating money to IFEX or PEN, even if it’s just a few dollars, so they can continue their important work.

In my mind, ALL HUMAN RIGHTS hinge on the right to speak freely. No one can discuss problems in theocracy, government, authority, or culture and find solutions, if they can’t, well, discuss those issues and concerns.

 

 

“I am now convinced, more than ever, that the path of literature is the assured way to human salvation and to civilisation. I hail the power of the pen.”

Nigeria’s Ken Saro-Wiwa,  hanged on 10 November 1995