PEN America Speaks: How We Defended and Celebrated Free Expression The Week of February 19

PEN America works tirelessly to defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Here are some of the latest ways PEN America is speaking out.

• PEN America strongly denounced the sentencing of Sepideh Rashno, a young Iranian writer, poet, and vocal critic of the country’s mandatory hijab law. Rashno was arrested in July 2022 after a video showing her riding a bus bareheaded and arguing with a woman who was trying to force her to wear a hijab went viral. Rashno announced yesterday that she will be serving a total sentence of three years and 11 months in Evin prison.
• In a letter to the editor of The Economist, Director of Artists at Risk Connection, Julie Trébault, highlights the enduring spirit of Ukrainian artists, nearly 500 of whom ARC has supported. Our ARC team is also working with the curators of the Ukraine National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.  

• PEN America sharply criticized the decision by Catholic University to fire a lecturer after a guest speaker invited to her class spoke about abortion in response to student questions. The free expression advocacy organization called on the university to reverse the firing saying it was a “gross violation of academic freedom.”

• In response to the public hearing at the Royal Court of Justice in London regarding Julian Assange’s appeal of his extradition order to the United States, PEN America strongly condemned the charges he might be facing under the US Espionage Act, which continues to pose an alarming threat to press freedom.  

• PEN America, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Read Freely Alabama, and EveryLibrary today called on the Autauga-Prattville Library Board (AL) to reverse its new policy prohibiting all children’s and young adult books related to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and relevant issues. The groups called the new policy discriminatory and urged the Prattville Library to uphold the freedom to read for all its patrons.

See previous PEN America updates