PEN Canada celebrates literature, defends freedom of expression and aids writers in peril.
19 January 2024: PEN International and the undersigned PEN Centres condemn the retaliatory 15-month sentence against writer, human rights defender, and Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, resulting in a combined …
PEN Canada celebrates the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed Iranian writer and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran, and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” Ms Mohammadi is currently serving a ten-year sentence in a Tehran prison after repeated arrests since 2009.
Siri Hustvedt writes to Narges Mohammadi.
On September 16, 2022, a young woman from the Kurdish town of Saqez in northwest Iran travelled to Tehran. Shortly after her arrival, she was arrested for wearing an “improper hijab” and later died while in the custody of the “Morality Police.” Her tragic and unjust death sparked a series of protests and her name Zhina (Mahsa) soon became a national symbol of resistance to an oppressive, theocratic and misogynist government.
Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian writer, journalist, human rights defender, and Honorary Member of the Danish, Belgian, Norwegian, and Swedish PEN centres. She is the former Vice-President and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), co-winner of the 2013 Oxfam Novib / PEN Award, and winner of the 2011 Per Anger Prize and the 2009 Alexander Langer Award.
Ava Homa is a journalist, activist, and critically-acclaimed author of “Daughters of Smoke and Fire” (HarperCollins, 2020). She holds an MA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor.