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.
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Writer and human rights activist Chirasha has faced multiple attacks, including kidnapping attempts and electrocution, and threats on his life for his work exposing corruption within the Zimbabwean government. He fled the country in 2017, and has been in hiding since.
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Poet and medical doctor Almostageer has been subject to harassment, detention, and torture by both state and non-state actors for contributing to a literary collection deemed against “public morality.” On several occasions, he has been attacked in public and detained.
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Haile is co-founder of the newspaper Keste Debena. He has been detained incommunicado since 2001 in a sweeping crackdown on print media following the September 11 attacks. Haile has reportedly suffered torture and harsh conditions, drawing serious concern for his health.
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Sawfat, who has written critically about fundamentalist groups’ strict interpretation of Islam, has faced verbal abuse and intimidation after each piece he has written. He was also formally admonished for ‘distorting the picture of Egypt’ after leading a seminar overseas.
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Bahman is a literary writer and creative artist known for his illustrated copies of the Torah, Bible, and Psalms. He was detained on October 13, 2022 after giving an interview critical of the Iranian government to an Israeli TV channel. In December 2022, he was sentenced to death for espionage…
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Rajabian was imprisoned in 2016 after co-founding a music sharing website with his brother. They were released in 2017, but Rajabian was re-arrested in 2020 for publishing clips of women artists performing. He was conditionally released and barred from creating music.
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Salimi writes on gender and politics. He was detained for a month in July 2020 and released on bail. In July 2021, a court convicted him of propaganda and blasphemy, sentencing him to 3 years and 8 months in prison and mandatory emotional control classes. Given a partially suspended sentence,…
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Songwriter Yarrahi was arrested in August 2023 for writing a song titled “Rosarito” (Your Headscarf), an anti-hijab and pro-women’s rights song. He was charged with “propaganda,” “corruption,” and “publishing content against indecency.” After almost 2 months in detention, he was released on bail. He was sentenced to 2 years and…
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After writing a March 2018 blog post exposing negligence in the construction of power lines that led to a woman dying of electrocution, Hassan was the target of physical and online attacks, including a public, near-death beating that required hospitalization.
Writers at Risk Database Key:
STATUS box that is red: Active case
STATUS box that is black: Inactive case
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.
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.