PEN America and PEN Sydney today joined more than 170 writers and scholars worldwide–including Azar Nafisi, Shahriar Madanipour, Hisham Matar, Orhan Pamuk, Moniroo Ravanipour, Peter Sloterdjik, Bela Tarr, and Jia Zhangke–calling for the release of Ali Asadollahi, a noted poet and member of the Iranian Writers Association (IWA), as well as other unjustly detained writers in Iran.
With anti-government protests erupting across Iran and writers and dissident voices being detained, PEN America today called for the release of Iranian writer Reza Khandan Mahabadi on the second anniversary of his wrongful imprisonment. PEN America also urged the unconditional release of every writer and artist either imprisoned long-term or detained recently. Mahabadi, a member of the Iranian Writers’ Association and winner of the 2021 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write award, was sent to prison exactly two years ago, along with the poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin, who died this past January from medical neglect after falling ill with Covid 19, and Keyvan Bajan, who was released on parole in March 2022.
In the face of authoritarian resurgence around the world, PEN America's Freedom to Write Index documents cases of writers and public intellectuals who have been unjustly locked up for their exercise of free expression. At least 277 of them (in 36 countries) were in jail last year.
Myanmar writers this year feature prominently in PEN America’s annual Freedom to Write Index, providing a count of the writers and public intellectuals who were held in prison or detention during 2021 in relation to their writing or for otherwise exercising their free expression.
Myanmar writers this year feature prominently in PEN America’s annual Freedom to Write Index, providing a count of the writers and public intellectuals who were held in prison or detention during 2021 in relation to their writing or for otherwise exercising their free expression.