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Writers call on Islamic Summit to observe human rights
Received from Rahim Bajoghli <rbajoghli@juno.com>
OPEN LETTER
From: Edward Albee, Homero Aridjis, Yasar Kamal, Edward Said, Michael Scammell, Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller
To Heads of States participating in the Islamic Conference (December 8-11, 1997, Tehran)
December 8, 1997
We speak today as writers engaged in the constant struggle to defend our right and the right of our colleagues around the world to express ourselves freely without fear of reprisal. This week, two significant events coincide: International Human Rights Day (December 10th) and the Islamic Conference in Tehran (December 8th-11th).
In light of the rich literary heritage of the participating countries, we wish to draw attention to the plight of many writers who must struggle every day with the unacceptable choice to either protect their own safety and remain silent; or to speak their minds and risk imprisonment, torture and even death. In Tehran this week, many people will speak, and many will be spoken of: we wish to mention a few who will not.
We turn our attention first to the host country of the conference, the Islamic Republic of Iran. By censoring many of its brightest literary figures and silencing all dissent, the government has gone to great lengths to undermine Iran's long and distinguished tradition of letters. The editor, Faraj Sarkuhi, is imprisoned today for nothing more than attempting to speak his mind. He will not be on any agenda at the Conference, but his presence in a cell somewhere nearby will surely cast a cloud over the proceedings. So will the deaths of writers and intellectuals such as Soltanpoor, Saidi-Sirjani, Mir'ala'i, Tafazzoli, and Zalzadeh. The recent suppression of Simin Behbahani shows that the signatories of the 1994 Declaration of 134 Iranian Writers remain in danger today.
It is not only in Iran that writers have been censored, imprisoned, exiled, or killed by official and unofficial groups. In Algeria, Abdel Kadr Alloula, the playwright, filmmaker and actor was gunned down for his denunciation of violence. In Syria, the poet, Faraj Birqdar, has been imprisoned for ten years. In Kuwait, Iraqi poet Khalaf Alwan Jallud Al-Maliki is serving 15 years in prison. In Iraq, Aziz Al-Syed Jasim, journalist and author, is imprisoned indefinitely for refusing to write a book about Saddam Hussein. In Turkey, Recep Marasli, a publisher, was arrested in March 1997 for expressing his views on Kurdish culture and identity. Even writers of international stature, such as Turkey's Yasar Kamal and Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz, have been targeted in recent years.
We condemn these violations irrespective of the perpetrator. We appeal to the participants in the Islamic Conference to put an end to these abuses and to promote freedom of expression which will inevitably enrich their cultural heritage.
We believe that the coincidence of International Human Rights Day and the 1997 Islamic Conference points to a larger truth in which the caprices of chance play no part: try as they may, governments who repress their own citizens cannot escape the standard of freedom set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As we celebrate the declaration*s forty-ninth anniversary this week, we reaffirm our commitment to human rights and our conviction that all leaders who violate such principles as freedom of expression shall witness the erosion of their power, and shall be defeated by the strength inherent in words.
Signed
Edward Albee, Homero Aridjis, Yasar Kamal, Edward Said, Michael Scammell, Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller
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