Since the violent death of Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022, nationwide protests have been taking place in Iran, which are brutally suppressed by the regime in Tehran. The world is watching with great concern the extreme repression of the pro-women, pro-life, pro-freedom demonstrators in the Islamic Republic. There have been numerous expressions of solidarity around the world. September 2023 marks the first anniversary of the protests. We take this as an opportunity to discuss with authors, poets and experts: What has happened in the last 12 months?
Farsi, or Persian, which was once spoken from India to Central Asia and from Turkey to Egypt, has produced an art of poetry that is thousands of years old. Today, Persian literature is threatened by censorship.
In collaboration with PEN Berlin, these and other challenges currently facing Iranian society will be discussed.