PEN America 2021 Freedom to Write Index: Myanmar Joins China and Saudi Arabia as World’s Top Jailers of Writers
During 2021, Myanmar accounted for the single-largest increase of writers and public intellectuals newly jailed for exercising free expression, due to the military junta’s crackdown on influential voices. More
PEN America Statement on the Death of Reza Baraheni: A Legacy of “Courage and Defiance”
PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said: "The international writing community has lost a giant of free expression and human rights with the death of former PEN Canada president, author,… More
Nasrullah Lashani
Lashani, a Kurdish freelance journalist and political commentator, was released early from prison in 2019 but was re-arrested in June 2020 while trying to cross into Türkiye from Iraq… More
Nima Ghasemi
Ghasemi, a philosophy scholar who holds a PhD from Shahid Beheshti University, was arrested in February 2021 and taken to Evin Prison where he was kept in solitary confinement… More
Qasem Bahrami Sheyda Hamedani
Poet and musician Qasem Bahrami was detained in September 2021 on unknown charges, most likely due to his original poems and online readings of verses that criticize the government.… More
Toomaj Salehi
Rapper Toomaj was briefly arrested in September 2021. Denied legal representation, in January 2022 he was given a 6-month suspended sentence for “insulting leadership” and “propaganda.” He was arrested… More
Touraj Amini
Historian, researcher, and literary writer Touraj Amini was tried for “spreading propaganda against the state” and given a reduced sentence of six months in prison. While he was detained,… More
Yasin Qasemi Bajd
A member of the Sunni minority in Iran who writes on politics and religion, Yasin Qasemi Bajd was arrested and reportedly interrogated in February 2021 on a number of… More
Akbar Azad
Akbar Azad is a poet, activist, and journalist from Iran continuously targeted by authorities. First arrested after giving a speech for UNESCO in 2014, he has been detained and… More
Aram Fathi
Fathi, a Kurdish poet, writer, and activist, was arrested and taken to an unknown location on June 17, 2021, after the Iranian intelligence service conducted a raid on his… More
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