Shahrazad - Stories for life

A constant audience of around 300 people witnessed Tribunal 12 at Kulturhuset in Stockholm over the weekend, while several others followed the trial via live streams around Europe.

 

After four sessions on border control, the asylum process, undocumented migrants and detention and deportation, the international jury – consisting of Nawal El Saadawi, Saskia Sassen, Nuruddin Farah, Sadik J Al-Azm, Henning Mankell, B S Chimni and Parvin Ardalan – reached a conclusion, condemning European governments of violating human rights along with existing law on how to handle asylum seekers and irregular migration. Read the full verdict here.

 

National broadcaster SVT were at Kulturhuset in Stockholm during the rehearsals, while Swedish TV channel TV4 and Swedish radio P1 reported from the trial (all in Swedish). Around Europe people were not only following the live broadcast, but also organising screenings and talks. Here’s a report of what happened in Borlänge (in Swedish).

 

An uncut version of the trial will soon be available to watch again on the Tribunal 12 website.

 

Image shows the jury, the chairman, one of the witnesses, the prosecutors and the expert panel at Tribunal 12. Photo: Kristina Wicksell/Kickpix

The countdown is nearly over. Before a jury consisting of internationally acclaimed authors, professors and activists, Tribunal 12 will tomorrow accuse Europe of the continual violations of human rights and mistreatments of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.

 

Nobel Prize-winning author Elfriede Jelinek, musician Jason Diakité aka Timbuktu, singer-songwriter José González and author Jonas Hassen Khemiri are just a few of many who have so far joined the accusation.

 

Tribunal 12 will be divided into four sessions at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, and conclude with an open discussion among the members of the jury. The public is invited to attend the sessions at Kulturhuset. Public manifestations will also take place at Sergels torg outside Kulturhuset.

 

Tomorrow's programme in Stockholm is as follows (local times):

 

10.00-11.30 Session: Border control

Prof. Jacquline Bhabha, expert

Prof. Leanne Weber, expert

Maria Selbing, actor, represents Reza

Misagh Sharifian, actor, represents Abdifatah

Sara Turpin, actor, represents Bahram

 

12.30-14.00 Session: Asylum process

Prof. Matthew Gibney, expert

Prof. Gregor Noll, expert

Pelle Hanæus, actor, represents Tamirat

Oldoz Javidi, actor, represents Ehsan

Sandra Malmquist, actor, represents Faten

 

14.00-15.30 Manifestation activities at Sergels torg

 

15.30-17.00 Session: Undocumented migrants

Prof. Bridget Anderson, expert

Dr. Henry Ascher, expert

Isa Aouifia, actor, represents Kenan

Per Burell, actor, represents Rita

Ida Löfholm, actor, represents Olga

 

17.00-18.00 Manifestation activities at Sergels torg

 

18.00-19.30 Session: Detention & deportation

Prof. Nicholas de Genova, expert

Liz Fekete, expert

Lena Carlsson, actor, represents Ali

Richard Sseruwagi, actor, represents Alex

Helena Thornqvist, actor, represents Faith

 

19.30-21.00 Manifestation activities at Sergels torg

 

21.00-22.30 Discussion amongst the members of the jury

 

If you’re not in Stockholm, a number of events will be taking place simultaneously in Norwich, Stavanger and several other European cities. You can also follow the tribunal live online.

 

For more information, visit the Tribunal 12 website or Facebook page.

Shahrazad and ICORN are proud to present the world premiere of filmmaker Marion Stalens' latest work, Silence or Exile, at the Skandia biografen on 10 May 2012 as part of the ICORN General Assembly series of events in Stockholm. 

 

The film takes an intimate look at the lives of five exiled writers who, in their pursuit of freedom of speech, have been forced to escape their home countries and build a life from scratch in their new host countries. Through these writers, the film tells a story of a violent, absurd and unjust world.

 

Four of the five writers profiled in the documentary have strong ties to the ICORN network, and two of the authors - Philo Ikonya and Mana Neyestani - are current guest writers in Oslo and Paris respectively. The other writers include Horacio Castellanos Moya (El Salvador/Iowa City), Svetlana Alexievitch (Belarus/Stockholm), and Ma Jian (China/London).

 

Marion Stalens has been working as a photographer for the last 20 years. Her images have been published in newspapers and magazines both in France and abroad, and featured in numerous exhibitions. She started making films in 2001, and her work includes Juliette Binoche: Sketches for a Portrait (2009), Invitation to Leave France (2007), and The Reconciliation (2004), which documents life in South Africa a decade after Apartheid's end.

 

Here Stalens explains what motivated her to make Silence or Exile: ”At a time when the debate on receiving exiles embroils France, and the entire Western world, the film sets the stage for writers to tell us, from the inside, 'what it means to be in exile' and how they perceive us, we who receive them.

 

”By observing these exiled writers, relentlessly free, embodied by an extraordinary vitality, enlightened by a distanced vision all the while deeply connected to their culture of origin, we are able to understand what an immense opportunity being able to receive them actually is.

 

”Though firstly submerged in the murky waters of dictatorship, then ripped from their contexts and thrown into exile, these writers continue their work. They observe and translate their characters’ inner movements and approach them through the most intimate, and therefore the most universal, parts of the human being. They work themselves to the bone. Their works, inspired by man’s worst, unveil the frailty and brittleness of humanity when we are subjected to the pressures of fear or are inebriated with power. Thanks to their widened perception, these writers aim to pierce false pretence in order to enable us to see man stripped naked.

 

”Their art speaks of us, and of the banality of evil, as misuse of power largely exceeds the borders of dictatorships and involves the very core of human relations. With tremendous lucidity, their eyes reveal to us that the worst is lurking and thriving omnipresent...

 

”Throughout the film, the writers' singular and solitary stories respond to each other. A profound feeling of brotherhood is woven beyond that singularity; the viewers find themselves both witnesses and doers through their own eyes.”

 

Frittord is also an external sponsor of the premiere.

 

Still shows Ma Jian.