{"id":11647,"date":"2014-02-18T10:16:22","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T14:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=11647"},"modified":"2014-02-18T10:16:22","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T14:16:22","slug":"poetry-a-more-serious-crime-than-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/poetry-a-more-serious-crime-than-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry, \u2018A More Serious Crime Than Murder\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again from the Arabic Literature (in English) <\/a>website:<\/p>\n

\n

Poetry, \u2018A More Serious Crime Than\u00a0Murder\u2019<\/h3>\n

BY\u00a0MLYNXQUALEY<\/a>\u00a0on<\/em>\u00a01<\/a>\u00a0)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

It hasn\u2019t been a good few weeks for Arabic-writing poets. In Qatar,\u00a0Muhammad al-Ajami<\/a>\u00a0remains in prison. In Iran, poet Hashem Shaabani, who published both in Persian and in Arabic, was \u00a0executed for being an enemy of God and the state,\u00a0according to rights groups<\/a>. In Egypt, the\u00a0Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)<\/a>\u00a0declared that \u201cwriting poetry became a more serious crimt than murder\u201d afer two police officers were suspended for their poems:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"egy_police\"<\/a>Although Sameh Abdel-Zaher and Sameh Al-Saeedi\u00a0were suspended for critical poems, ANHRI noted that \u201cthe Ministry of Interior refused to suspend those officers who are accused of killing scores of citizens, such as the officers in Alexandria, including Wael Al-Komi, and allowed them to resume their work or to transfer them to another places.\u201d<\/p>\n

ANHRI wrote in a prepared release:<\/p>\n

Apparently, murder charge has become a violation that doesn\u2019t necessitate suspension or preventive detention. Meanwhile, writing poetry has become a crime that necessitates breaking the pens of whoever write and suspending them.<\/p>\n

In Iran, Arab-Iranian poet\u00a0Shaabani and another man, Hadi Rashedi, were reportedly hanged in unidentified prison on January 27. According\u00a0to Amir Taheri, writing in\u00a0al-Sharq al-Awsat<\/em><\/a>, Shaabani mostly wrote non-political poetry. \u201cOne of his odes is\u00a0Homage to Karoun<\/em>, Iran\u2019s largest and only navigable river; in another poem he speaks of \u2018the blonde sun of Khuzestan.\u2019\u201d Taheri also writes that, although Shaabani was not allowed to publish during President Mohammad Khatami\u2019s eight-year tenure, the poet \u201cwas not prevented from organizing public poetry recitals in Ahvaz and several other Khuzestani cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taheri also writes that Shaabani is the author of the poem \u201cSeven Reasons Why I Should Die\u201d:<\/p>\n

Seven Reasons Why I Should Die<\/strong>
\nBy Hashem Shaabani<\/p>\n

For seven days they shouted at me:<\/div>\n
You are waging war on God!<\/div>\n
On Saturday, they said it\u2019s because you\u2019re Arab<\/div>\n
On Sunday, Well, you\u2019re from Ahvaz<\/div>\n
On Monday: Remember that you are Iranian<\/div>\n
Tuesday: You mock the Holy Revolution<\/div>\n
Wednesday: Didn\u2019t you raise your voice to help others?<\/div>\n
Thursday: You are a poet and a bard<\/div>\n
Friday: You are a man. Isn\u2019t this reason enough to die?<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again from the Arabic Literature (in English) website: Poetry, \u2018A More Serious Crime Than\u00a0Murder\u2019 BY\u00a0MLYNXQUALEY\u00a0on\u00a0FEBRUARY 11, 2014 \u2022\u00a0(\u00a01\u00a0) It hasn\u2019t been a good few weeks for Arabic-writing poets. In Qatar,\u00a0Muhammad al-Ajami\u00a0remains in prison....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1012,11,47,1442,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-spring","category-arab-culture","category-freedom-of-speech","category-mashreq","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11647"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11649,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions\/11649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}