Shahrazad - Stories for life

Guest writer, Chiusi City of Refuge 2008 - 2010

Yousefi Eshkevari is a journalist and researcher in Islamic theology and the history of Islam, critical to the theocratic government of Iran.

Previously he has worked as the director of the Ali Sheriati Research Centre and has been the editor of the newspaper Iran-e Farda, which was banned in 2000. In 2000 Yousefi Eshkevari was arrested and imprisoned for "war against Islam" and "apostasy". He was released in 2005.

Mohamad Alaaedin Abdul Moula is an award winning writer and poet from Syria. Since his first poetry collection, Elegies for the Family of Hearts (1990), he has published more than a dozen books.

In addition to poetry and prose, he has written critical works. Mr. Abdul Moula is a member of the Arabic Writers' Union in Syria, and details of his work can be found (in Arabic) on their website.

Since 1980 Mr. Abdula Moula has been under threat, harassed, and on several occasions forbidden to travel outside the country. Considerable pressure has been put on him to write in favour of the Syrian president, and in 1996 he lost his job for refusing to cooperate.

Guest Writer, Malmö City of Refuge 2010 - present

Ardalan is an Iranian journalist, women's rights activist, a writer.

Ardalan is the editor of the feminist websites Iranian Feminists Tribune, Zanestan, and Change for equality. She co-founded the Women's Cultural Center, and the One Million Signatures Campaign, a grass roots movement aimed at repealing discriminatory laws against women. Ardalan won the Olof Palme Prize In 2007 and the Hellman/Hammett award in 2010. She is an honorary member of Swedish PEN.

Current Guest Writer, Trondheim City of Refuge 2010 - present

Amini is a poet, journalist, and women's rights activist.

She is one of Iran's most effective campaigners against the death penalty, particularly stoning and juvenile executions. She was awarded Human Rights Watch's Hellmann/Hammett award in 2009.

Guest writer, Kristiansand City of Refuge
2009 - 2011

Song Chi is a writer, journalist and film director from Ho Chi Minh-City, Vietnam.

She has worked for the Than Nien newspaper and Television Film Studio and received awards for her films. In the start of 2008 she was put under heavy surveillance, after having written critical articles on various websites and given interviews to overseas media. She got fired from her job at the Television Film Studio and had great difficulties in finding employment.

Guest writer, Frederiksberg City of Refuge 2010 - present

Seedy Bojang isa a published author of both fiction and non-fiction books, as well as journalist and editor from the Gambia.

His novel from 2009, Tip of the Iceberg, exposes corruption and criminality among civil servants and the affluent in the Gambia. Other works discus social issues in the Gambia, such as Shadows from my past (2010), Bumpy journey (2008) and The changing world (2006).

As a journalist Bojang is active in reporting on restraints of freedom of expression, as well as threats and harassment of journalists. Due to hos work, there are great difficulties in finding employment in hte Gambia for Seedy Bojang. In August 2011 Bojang's latest book was released, Our tears and sorrows, a portrayal of the blows and media freedom and democracy on the African continent.

. . . is a pseudonym for a current ICORN Guest Writer whose identity cannot be revealed at this time. We hope that we will be able to present this person's real name and writing credentials in the near future. Please check back.

Guest writer, Kristiansand City of Refuge 2006 -2008

Salah Salim Ali is a writer and researcher in translation and linguistics, from Iraq. He ha written extensively about Iraqi Classical Poetry.

Ali worked at the University of Mosul and as an interpreter. During Saddam Hussein's regime he was imprisoned for one year and faced many difficulties after his release. In Norway he has been active writing articles and participating in international conferences within his field.

Guest writer, Tromsø City of Refuge 2011 - present

Jahangir Alam Akash is a journalist from Bangladesh, who has worked for newspapers, radio- and tv channels in his home country.

He has reported on human rights issues sush as Islamic militancy and extra-judicial killings and women's rights. Akash has been a front figure in Bengali human rights organizations like Justice Foundation, Bangladesh Institute for Human Rights and Taskforce Against Torture. He has published several books and has received awards for his human rights work as well as for his journalistic literature.

Akash was harassed, arrested unlawfully and tortured in prison. This forced him to leave Bangladesh, by the help of Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders. He is the editor of the website Euro Bangla.

Guest writer, Tromsø City of Refuge 2007 - 2009

As a writer, translator and researcher, Mohammed Hassan Abdullah from Iraq, focused on French Literature and poetry.

He has translated children's books, French novels and poetry and worked as a French teacher in Iraqi schools. In his homeland he also wrote articles defending democracy. This, together with his engagement to French literature, led to severe persecution of himself and his family. After harassment and death threats, Mohammed Hassan Abdullah came to Tromsø with his family in 2007.

Tunisian journalist and writer prevented from working in her own country because of her involvement in human rights. She faced a long term persecution and reprisals against her and her family.

A graduate of philosophy of the University of Toulouse (France), Sihem Bensedrine has been engaged in the fight for the human rights in Tunisia since 1980. As a journalist, she made her debut in the independent press which prospered in the 80s. This was the beginning of a fight for press freedom. This fighting also extended to the feminist sphere where she was at the origin of the birth of a women's club, Club Tahar Haddad, and of Nissa, a feminist magazine.
Bensedrine is now editor in chief of the online magazine Ka¬lima and Radio Kalima(web and satellite radio. Kalima was denied registration after five attempts to register.  

Safaa Alwan is the ICORN Guest Writer in Skien City of Refuge. He worked as an editor, journalist and writer in his homeland of Iraq, which he had to flee in 2009.

Pegāh Ahmadi is an Iranian poet, scholar, literary critic and translator of poetry. She is currently the ICORN Guest Writer in Frankfurt City of Refuge.

Ahmadi made her début as a poet at age seventeen by the publication of a poem in the literary magazine Takāpu. She has studied Persian literature at the University of Tehran, and regularly contributed to literary magazines on subject matters related to criticism of verse, theoretical issues pertaining to poetry and translation of poems. She is a member of Iranian Writers Association. In 2007 she was awarded the Celebrity of Poetry Award of the Iranian Journalists' Institute. Ahmadi has published several books of poetry, anthologies, literary reviews and translation of American poetry (like Sylvia Plath). Before coming to Germany, she worked as editor of the literary review Paperik and taught "Poetry in cinema" at the Film School Tehran.

Poet from Iraq. Al-Sheikh has been a very active participant in the Arab Union of Writers since 1993, and has published collections of her own poetry as well as editing an anthology of modern Iraqi poetry.

Manal Al-Sheikh is from Nineveh in northern Iraq, and has a degree in English translation from the College of Arts at Mosul University. She has freelanced for a number of local newspapers, as well as the She'riat Magazine in Libya. Al-Sheikh participated in all sessions of the Annual Mosul University Festival of Creativity, as well as in several forums specializing in Iraqi fiction in Baghdad, three consecutive sessions of the Mirbad Festival of Poetry, and the Iqamat Ibdaeiya (Creative Residencies) event in Algeria.

She has published poetry and essays in several Iraqi and international Arabic newspapers. Her first book, "Inhirafut-tawabeet" ("The Deviation of Coffins"), was published by the Iraqi Union of Writers in Nineveh in 1996. In 2007, she edited and published "Umaraur-ruaa" ("Princes of Imaginative Visions"), an anthology of modern Iraqi poetry, and published "Assfar Alo'zlah" ("Books of Seclusion") in Egypt in 2008. A collection of poetic narrative titled "Kadmu Dhaheratin Mukaddada" ("Biting Through a Chopped Moon") is to be published in Syria in 2009, and "Belnokta elhamraa tahta eynhi elyousrah" ("With a red dot under his left eye") is also forthcoming.

Manal Al-Sheikh is currently the ICORN Guest Writer of Stavanger City of
Refuge. You can listen to an interview with Al-Sheikh here, and hear her read her poem Pennylessness here.

Islam Elsanov is a filmmaker and writer from Chechnya, and a former ICORN Guest Writer of Stavanger City of Refuge. He has worked as a journal and book editor in Grozni, and is currently working on a documentary.

Novelist, poet and human rights activist Gilles Dossou-Gouin is originally from Benin, and now a former ICORN Guest Writer of Molde City of Refuge. Before coming to Norway, he lived in exile in Senegal.

Novelist and, anti-colonialist and political activist Boubacar Boris Diop finished his first novel before even finishing high school. He is from Senegal, and has been the ICORN Guest Writer of Casa Refugio in Mexico City.

Faraj Bayrakdar of Syria is a journalist and poet, and the ICORN Guest Writer of Stockholm City of Refuge. Bayrakdar was imprisoned for nearly 15 years, suspected of belonging to the Party for Communist Action.

Soudabeh Alishahi, former ICORN Guest Writer in Oslo City of Refuge, worked as a high school teacher in Iran. She also wrote short stories focusing on controversial subjects such as women's rights.

Svetlana Alexievich from Ukraine is a former ICORN Guest Writer of Gothenburg City of Refuge. Her award-winning works have been the basis for documentary films focusing on witnessing and national crisis.