As a young university student, Mansur Rajih's poetry was published in local newspapers. His work was critical of the Yemeni regime, and in 1983 he was arrested and imprisoned under the guise of a murder charge.
The following year he was sentenced to death. For fifteen years organizations such as PEN International and Amnesty International campaigned for Mansur's release, which was finally granted in 1998 when he was flown directly from prison to Stavanger City of Refuge.
Since that time Mansur Rajih has written and published three volumes of poetry, bi-lingual collections with poems in Norwegian and Arabic: Horoskop: Fengsel? Horoskop: Kjærleik. (2000), Så langt borte: Så nær (2003) and Min brors smerte (2008). His life (thus far) has also been the subject of several short films.
To read a Norwegian newspaper article on Mansur Rajih, go here . To read four of his poems in English, go here . To read poems in Norwegian and Arabic, go here . To listen to a recording of Mansur Rajih reading his poetry, go here .
