Writers at Risk Database
PEN America champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. The bedrock work of the global PEN network is advocacy and assistance on behalf of individuals persecuted for their use of the written word or other forms of expression. PEN America’s Writers at Risk Database is a searchable catalog of the writers, journalists, academics, public intellectuals and others under threat around the world. The database includes historical cases PEN America has worked on from 1987 onwards; non-active cases are color-coded black. PEN America is grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for support that enabled the establishment of the Writers at Risk Database and to PEN International for their collaboration in assembling this database.
Filters
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Status
Displaced/In ExileAkbar Ganji
Journalist, Literary writerIranMiddle East and North AfricaDescribed as one of Iran’s leading political dissidents, Ganji’s writings are banned in the country. Ganji was imprisoned from 2001-2006 for participation in an academic conference and investigations into extrajudicial murders of writers that implicated public officials.
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ImprisonedAkbar Imin
Online Commentator, ScholarChina/Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous RegionAsia-PacificImin, a student of Ilham Tohti, was arrested for his involvement with Tohti’s website Uyghurbiz, which promotes mutual ethnic understanding. He was sentenced to 25 years for “forming a mafia group” in a 2014 secret trial and has been held incommunicado since 2018. Recent reports alleging he was released in…
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Conditional ReleaseAkli Mouhoubi
Journalist, Literary writer, PoetAlgeriaMiddle East and North AfricaMouhoubi is a poet and literary writer who was engaged in freelance reporting at a local newspaper. He was suddenly arrested at his workplace and taken into custody on January 25, 2023. While in detention, his father was summoned and asked to provide a copy of his son’s latest poetry…
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On TrialAkram Aylisli
Dramatist, Literary writerAzerbaijanEurope and Central AsiaAylisi has been subject to a government-sanctioned public harassment campaign since the publication of his novella Stone Dreams in 2012. He is currently on trial for charges of ‘hooliganism’ and resisting arrest, and lives under de facto house arrest.
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DisappearedAkram Raslan
Creative artist, Online CommentatorSyriaMiddle East and North AfricaA well-known cartoonist and blogger, Raslan has published over 300 cartoons. Since the 2012 uprising in Syria, he has been publishing pro-opposition cartoons anonymously on popular news websites such as Al-Jazeera and on his blog. He was arrested in late 2012 and disappeared.
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ImprisonedAlaa Abd El Fattah
Activist, Online CommentatorEgyptMiddle East and North AfricaAbd El Fattah was born in Cairo and grew up in a family of activists. His father was a human rights attorney, his mother is a professor and political activist, and both of his sisters, Mona Seif and Sanaa Seif, have raised awareness for civilian detainees, co-founded an independent newspaper…
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ReleasedAlaa Al-Mashrawi
JournalistPalestinian TerritoriesMiddle East and North AfricaDirector of Al-Mashreq News, Alaa Al-Mashrawi is a vocal critic who writes opinion pieces and columns in solidarity with Palestinians. In 2020, he wrote an article calling for the boycott of the telecommunications company Jawwal. He was arrested by Hamas Internal Security Forces in 2021 and held for 78 days…
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DetainedAlaa al-Rimawi
Journalist, Online CommentatorIsrael/Occupied Palestinian TerritoryMiddle East and North AfricaIn October 2023, Israeli forces raided political analyst, columnist, and J-Media director Al-Rimawi’s home in the West Bank and detained his son, whose arrest they used to pressure Al-Rimawi to turn himself in. A month later, his wife reported that he had been placed in administrative detention for 6 months;…
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MurderedAlaa Mashzoub
Literary writerIraqMiddle East and North AfricaOn February 2, 2019, Mashzoub was murdered by an anonymous motorcycle gunman in Karbala. Prior to his death, Mashzoub was a vocal critic of Iraqi religious sectarianism and his killing is suspected to be related to his online posts critical of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini.
Writers at Risk Database Key:
STATUS box that is red: Active case
STATUS box that is black: Inactive case
Funder
PEN America is deeply grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for its generous support of the Freedom to Write Index and Writers at Risk Database.
Partner
PEN America thanks the PEN International Secretariat and the Writers in Prison Committee for their extensive contributions to and collaboration on compiling the cases included in this database.