Shahrazad - Stories for life

With the help of Paris' first ICORN Guest Writer, cartoonist Mana Neystani, Shahrazad - stories for life wishes you all a happy, safe, interesting and peaceful 2012!

 

The project is entering its final year. We feel proud and happy looking back at what we've achieved so far, and are very excited looking forward to all the stories we will get to share with you this year. Among these things, we would especially like to mention Tribunal12 - a huge display of the spirit of Shahrazad to take place in Stockholm in May. Please join us in making it a truly meaningful happening!

Kianoush Ramezani is an Iranian artist and cartoonist. He has sought refuge in France since 2009 due to his involvement in Iran's Green Movement and his leadership position in the Cartoonists' Rights Network International (CRNI). You can read more about him and see a selection of his work on his blog. The top picture is Ramezani's commentary on the recent presidential election in Russia; the bottom one was inspired by news of the capture of an American drone in Iran.

   

Otba Fathallah Mahmoud is an Iraqi author who was Stavanger's Guest Writer from 2007-2009. This piece was inspired by his enjoyment of listening to a street musician by the lake on a beautiful day in his City of Refuge.
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The sunlight of early morning in Stavanger knocks the windows of sleeping eyes to open on the light of a new day. What a blue sky over this peaceful quiet city!
Like a big flag it flutters over its land to announce it as a capital for peace.
Yesterday night I didn’t let my eyelids hang down to take a short rest from life. Play which we play its roles or it plays its roles by us!
It was another shining morning and I didn’t have the ability to close my eyes to sleep. Since I use them a lot to read, the interiors of things feel more like the truth to me.
I locked my house door and took myself outside with others, but the difference was that they know where they go but I don’t ... I found myself in the city center with the meek lake and a couple of white swans; oh...what a pure morning, my innocent swans !!
A melody slipped into my ears so I turned to find a saxophone player embracing his tool as if it was his beloved with whom he was reunited after a long absence; and what a melody that flowed to meet the water of the glittering clear lake and the beauty of the swan floating peacefully. The player sent forth his music that called me to sit humbly in front of the beauty of this morning. As soon as the player took off with his melody accompanying the morning light, ideas began to blossom in my mind. None of the walkers stopped to listen to him, but he did not stop playing.
The pedestrians’ movements began to scatter the beauty of the scene; they didn’t pay attention to dewy early mornings or to the harmony of music which increased the beauty of the morning.

 

 

We accuse Europe of continual violations of human rights and the systematic mistreatment of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers!

Date: 12 May 2012

Location: Kulturhuset & Sergels torg in Stockholm and all over Europe.

 

 

People who flee to Europe are often met with disbelief and suspicion. Many are directly deported at the borders, despite risking their lives. Others are held up in prison-like detention centres lacking basic human rights. Once inside Europe, people are subjected to lengthy and complex asylum processes, often without legal advice. The vast majority of asylum applications are rejected, forcing people to return to extreme dangers. In order to survive, many choose to live hidden without any legal rights. 

 

 

At Tribunal 12, Europe will be held accountable for these failures. 

 

 

Inspired by the International War Crimes Tribunal that was formed by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre in 1967, Tribunal 12 sets out to locate the moral, legal and political responsibilities as well as call for a change within the system.

 

Tribunal 12 will present four artistically outlined sessions focusing on: BORDER CONTROL, ASYLUM PROCESS, UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS and DETENTION & DEPORTATION. A final session concludes with an open discussion amongst the jury members. 

 

The evidence will consist of witnesses and expert statements, statistics, re- ports and stories. 

 

Members of the jury are internationally acclaimed experts within the fields of philosophy, sociology, international law, literature, arts and activism.

 

The Tribunal 12 sessions will be broadcasted live in theatres and other public spaces throughout Europe, as well as on the project website.

 

Manifestations in connection to the screenings will take place at Sergels torg in Stockholm and in several European cities. 

 

Everybody is invited to support the accusation by digitally signing the website of Tribunal 12. The aim is to create a movement of support and present thousands of individuals, organisations and companies supporting the accusation. 

 

Tribunal 12 is currently gathering evidence, witness statements and stories un- der the session topics and encourages everyone to contribute with evidence to: evidence@tribunal12.org. 

 

During the Swedish Forum for Human Rights in Stockholm, Tribunal 12 presents three members of the jury. The remaining jury members will be released at different times during the coming monhts. 

 

Nawal el Saadawi is an Egyptian writer, feminist, physician and activist. Nawal el Saadawi is a renowned advocate on women's rights and freedom of expression in the Arab world. She has published numerous novels, short stories and non-fic- tion addressing women's issues and criticising oppressive regimes. Recently she has contributed with her reflections on the Arab spring.

 

Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, USA. Saskia Sassen is a world-leading expert on issues concerning globalisation and international migration. Her work embraces a broad scope of social, economical and political aspects as well as new technologies, and human rights. 

 

Nuruddin Farah is a one of Africas most prominent writers and advocate for women's rights in his homeland Somalia. Nuruddin Farah's extensive literary production brings life to the political and social struggles in the Horn of Af- rica. He is a perennial nominee for the Nobel Prize. 

 

The co-organisers behind Tribunal 12 are Shahrazad - Stories for Life, Kulturhuset in Stockholm and The Swedish Forum for Human Rights. The project is funded by the European Commission through the Culture Programme 2007-2013, Swedish Arts Council, Swedish Authors' Fund. Partners are ICORN - Internation- al Cities for Refuge Network, Riksteater, Videoforce & Acusticum. Several or- ganisations, companies and individuals supports the project in various ways. Please see the website for a full list of supporters. 

Noufel Bouzeboudja is an Amazigh writer, performer, and journalist from Algeria. He has been an English teacher and among his major literary projects have been as manager of Shakespeare productions, an accalaimed novelist, and a contributor to the US-based radio station, Radio Numydia. Bouzeboudja writes in many different languages, including Arabic, Kabyle, English, and French. To read more about Noufel, please see his blog. To hear more about Noufel's experience in Fanø, you can watch this you tube piece.

(Photo by Anders Bøggild  )

 

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The Agitator

Written by Noufel Bouzeboudja

 

Zero six, Bejaia ... nineteen, Sétif ... ten, Bouira ... fifteen, Tizi Ouzou, Ammi Slimane, as a big connoisseur of plate numbers of every department, is never tired of quoting them aloud every time a car passes by. Is it a kind of therapy to get his mind off thinking? No one knows.

 

His voice is hoarse, grave. He leaves his usual place only for his biological needs or for “bread” as he used to call his so-called work at Arezki’s restaurant. His duty is so simple: throwing the trash and sometimes peeling the potatoes. He in exchange receives two sandwiches, his meals of the day and a few hundred dinars for his coffee and his bus.

 

Today, he arrived earlier. His good shape surprises all the regular customers at the town square, where is improvised a sort of a public market. Two stalls of vegetables and fruits. Two plug tobacco, called chemma, traders eternally jealous one of the other and use to spy on each one’s sale. There is also a tobacco vendor, a shrill and quarrelsome fishmonger, the rest about ten idle, jobless youngsters speaking ill about the others or contemplating the passing cars through this road, the unique witness of the existence of their town. When a girl passes ... you may see their heads turning in a synchronized movement, eyes suspended on this latter’s swaying hips, following her. Right, left, right, left ... following her buttocks ... right ... left ... right ... left ... in a regular and exciting movement susceptible of sending them for about a quarter of imagination in the bathroom to stifle their frustration for a while.

Ola Larsmo from Swedish PEN gave this year's ICORN lecture at the Kapittel 11 Festival for Literature and Freedom of Speech in Stavanger. The 22 July atrocities in Oslo and at Utøya obviously resonated through this year's edition of the Kapittel festival programme. Larsmo's lecture addressed the spate of immigrant-related terrorist acts in Sweden and Norway over the past years, culminating in the massacre in Oslo and Utøya on 22 July. The speech considers the state of democracy and freedom of expression in modern Scandinavian society, and it examines what drives those who choose to commit acts of random violence in the name of national purity.

 

 

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I do not think many Swedes would readily recognise the name Taimour Abdulwahab. Possibly it may give rise to vague feelings of discomfort at the back of some people's minds. I, myself, was in Stockholm city when Abdulwahab blew himself to pieces on Drottninggatan on December 11 last year. He first detonated a car bomb and then his own explosive belt in the midst of the on-going Christmas shopping. Had he managed to implement his initial plan he could have injured and killed hundreds of people. We still don't know-and we may never know-why he detonated the bombs prematurely, whether it was by mistake or if he staged a last minute withdrawal from the plan. The image of his dead body lying on a snow-covered street in Stockholm can be easily accessed on the Internet. He was the only one to die.

 

Almost a year has passed and very little is known about the reasons behind his actions. He was a ‘normal' guy, a young man from Tranås, who had not shown any specific religious or political concerns at school-not until 2001 when in Luton and with the Moslem groups at the University. According to his family his change was sudden and dramatic.

 

One name, however, that most Swedes would recognise is the name of Peter Mangs, the man who was detained in Malmö a few weeks prior to Abdulwahab's suicide bombing in Stockholm. Mangs is charged of three murders and thirteen attempts of murder, where the victims share one common trait: either they or their parents were born outside of Sweden. Despite the fact that Mangs probably is one of the most notorious political assassinators in modern Swedish history-the ‘laserman' John Ausonious has been convicted of one murder and nine attempts of murder-after the suicide bombing in Stockholm Mangs disappeared completely from the headlines. Mangs is one of the worst kinds of racist mass murderers of our time yet his name is not actively remembered.

 

As you may have understood already this talk is also about Behring Breivik. These three, Abdulwahab, Mangs, and Behring Breivik, have nothing much in common apart from their conviction that they for purely ideological reasons regard themselves as having the right to kill people indiscriminately-to murder people whom they have never set eyes on before.