{"id":5762,"date":"2021-11-08T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T22:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=5762"},"modified":"2024-02-07T10:42:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T08:42:52","slug":"day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-november-15-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-november-15-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Day of the Imprisoned Writer \u2014 November 15, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

TMR<\/h4>\n

On November 15th<\/sup>, every year now for the last 40 years, PEN International has observed the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. With the harassment, detention, conviction and imprisonment of writers, journalists, academics and activists on the rise around the world, the folks at PEN have their work cut out for them.<\/p>\n

Promoting literature and freedom of expression, PEN celebrated its 100th<\/sup> anniversary<\/a> on October 5th<\/sup>, 2021, and has autonomous PEN centers in more than 100 countries.<\/p>\n

Over the years, PEN has championed the release of such writers as Orhan Pamuk and Hrant Dink in Turkey, Maziar Bahari and Sedigeh Vasmaghi in Iran, and Natalia Sharina and Oleg Sentsov in Russia. Lest you think that PEN hasn\u2019t had any reason to evince concern over writers in the United States, consider their 2019 \u201cjudicial concern\u201d for imprisoned journalist and author Mumia Abu-Jamal.<\/p>\n

Turkey in the last few years has become one of the largest oppressors of writers, academics and intellectuals, with the single largest prison population of political detainees in continental Europe. President Erdogan, consolidating his power, has fired 5,600 academics and 51,000 school teachers whose progressive politics or Kurdish heritage he disliked, or who as journalists\/editors\/publishers, have been too outspoken, such as widely-translated journalist-novelist Ahmed Altan, who has said, \u201cMy words cannot be imprisoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Selahattin Demirta\u015f (photo: Twitter).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PEN is calling for the immediate release of writer Selahattin Demirta\u015f, a Zaza-Kurdish politician and former co-leader of the Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey. Demirta\u015f began his political career as a human rights lawyer, and helped transform the HDP into a more inclusive party with an emphasis on progressive values, feminism, and LGBTQ rights. He passionately believes in the liberal, democratic future of Turkey. Imprisoned since November 2016, Demirta\u015f ran for president in 2014, and again in 2018 \u2013 where he conducted his campaign from his prison cell. His first collection of short stories, Dawn<\/em><\/a>, was written from a maximum-security prison in Edirne, where he is still being held. According to PEN,\u00a0 Demirta\u015f has been imprisoned “on charges of being a leading member of a terrorist organisation, spreading terrorist propaganda, praising crimes and criminals and inciting public hatred and hostility. The evidence used against him consists largely of his political speeches and press statements and lacks any compelling evidence of criminal activity.”<\/p>\n

PEN is demanding that the Turkish authorities immediately turn Selahattin Demirta\u015f loose and quash his conviction, in accordance with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights and end all ongoing criminal proceedings against him.<\/p>\n

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Imprisoned Uygher writer Rahile Dawut (photo courtesy Lisa Ross).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For years, PEN has championed the plight of Uyghur imprisoned writers, and is now calling for the immediate release of Rahile Dawut. A prominent anthropologist and leading expert on the study of Uyghur folklore and cultural traditions, Dawut is an associate professor at Xinjiang University and founder of the university\u2019s Minorities Folklore Research Center; she is internationally recognized for her unique contribution to the study and cataloguing of Uyghur cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

According to PEN, Dawut disappeared in late 2017, shortly after making plans to travel from Xinjiang to Beijing to participate in an academic conference. In July 2021, investigative reporting<\/a> by Radio Free Asia\u2019s Uyghur Service confirmed her imprisonment according to sources within Xinjiang University.<\/p>\n

In a communiqu\u00e9, PEN concludes that, \u201cDawut\u2019s imprisonment is emblematic of the Chinese government\u2019s efforts to dislocate the Uyghur population from their cultural identity and heritage through overwhelming levels of censorship and repression. Since the establishment of Xinjiang\u2019s expansive network of re-education camps in 2017, over a million Uyghurs and other minorities have been detained, including hundreds of writers, poets, translators, scholars and public intellectuals<\/a>, who together represent the living embodiment of Uyghur culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

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