{"id":14008,"date":"2016-01-09T11:32:44","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T15:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14008"},"modified":"2016-01-09T11:32:44","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T15:32:44","slug":"iranian-poet-activist-sentenced-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/iranian-poet-activist-sentenced-to-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian Poet & Activist Sentenced To Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"hqdefault\"<\/a>via\u00a0\"International<\/a><\/p>\n

January 8, 2016\u2014The poet and civil activist Hila Sedighi<\/a> was arrested at Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 7, 2016, as she and her husband returned from a trip to the United Arab Emirates, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has learned.<\/p>\n

Sedighi\u2019s arrest appears to be in connection with a sentence issued against her in absentia by the Culture and Media Court, a court established by the Iranian Judiciary to try media and culture-related crimes. There has been no comment as of yet from government or judicial officials on the reasons for her arrest or where she is being detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtistic expression is under unprecedented assault in Iran,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. \u201cThe Iranian Judiciary is incapable of tolerating the peaceful expression of its own citizens, seeking instead to intimidate and silence them with arrests and imprisonment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedighi, 30, co-recipient of the 2012 Hellman\/Hammett prize for free expression<\/a>, was a campaign worker for reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi in 2009 and she recited poems in public gatherings in support of the Green Movement.<\/p>\n

The Green Movement arose in opposition to the outcome of Iran\u2019s 2009 presidential election, which resulted in the widely disputed victory of the hardline Ahmadinejad presidency. The peaceful protests that swept Iran after the election were violently put down by the state.<\/p>\n

On December 9, 2010, Intelligence Ministry agents searched Sedighi\u2019s home and took away a number of her personal belongings. She was then summoned and interrogated numerous times by the Intelligence Ministry. On August 16, 2011, Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court condemned Sedighi to four months in prison, and the sentence was suspended for five years.<\/p>\n

In recent months there has been a surge in the crackdown on members of the artistic community. In October 2015, poet Fatemeh Ekhtesari was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison and another poet, Mehdi Mousavi, was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a Revolutionary Court<\/a>. In addition, both were sentenced to 99 lashes.<\/p>\n

The documentary filmmaker Keywan Karimi was sentenced to six years in prison and 233 lashes for \u201cinsulting the sacred\u201d and \u201cillegitimate relations<\/a>\u201d\u00a0while three music producers, Mehdi Rajabian, Hossein Rajabian and Yousef Emadi, were sentenced to six years in prison for \u201cpropaganda against the state<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In addition, the poet and lyricist Yaghma Golrouee was arrested at his home on\u00a0November 30, 2015, and later released on bail, and the poet Mohamadreza Haj Rostambegloo<\/a>\u00a0was arrested on December 16, 2015, and bailed out two days later.<\/p>\n

The crackdown, which has also targeted journalists and individuals associated with reformist groups in Iran, has intensified as the country approaches critical Parliamentary elections in February 2016. Hardliners are anxious to maintain their dominance in the domestic sphere and beat back any potential political gains of the Rouhani administration and more moderate factions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mounting arrests of young artists in Iran is yet another indication of the suffocating domination of security and intelligence agencies over the Judiciary,\u201d said Ghaemi. \u201cThese young artists are national treasures; now they are behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hila Sedighi\u2019s latest poem:<\/p>\n

The Wind Blew Your House Away<\/b><\/p>\n

The wind blew away your house
\nAnd, you still worry about the wind blowing in my hair?!
\nThe myth of which cave\u2019s sleepers has you intoxicated so?
\nWhy are you sleeping?
\nA hundred tribes go to ruins while you sleep
\nThe scandal about the kingdom\u2019s thieves is everywhere
\nBut, with your two hands, you still hold on to the two ends of my shawl<\/p>\n

You are asleep behind this worn out curtain, and I,
\nwith this same \u2018forbidden\u2019 hair of mine
\nwill weave a ladder as tall as the sunrise
\nto bring out the sun
\nAnd you are asleep and water passes over you<\/p>\n

And you never saw
\nhow in the forest, pine trees were cut down, night after night,<\/p>\n

in place of poplar trees
\nAnd there were no tigers when
\nmythological Damavand Mountain
\nwas hanged from the loin
\nAnd for every grain of rice that had come to our table through hard labor,
\nin the rice paddies,
\nthey planted iron, bricks, and walls<\/p>\n

And you are sleeping,<\/p>\n

and water thirsted for Hamoon Lake,
\nblood of Zayandeh River clotted,
\nand the breath of Hoor Wetlands\u2019 humid nights
\nwere buried under mud<\/p>\n

The wind blew away your house
\nThe scandal about the lootings has broken out
\nWith your claws, you grab on to my night\u2019s hair
\nLest the famine-stricken nights of our dinner spread
\nreveals the emptiness of your fists
\nLest anyone sees your temper<\/p>\n

I am veiled
\nbut not veiled according to volition of my own free body
\nI am veiled because of your spoiled body and mind
\nYou are asleep behind this worn out curtain, and I,
\nwith this same \u2018forbidden\u2019 hair of mine
\nwill weave a ladder as tall as the sunrise
\nto bring out the sun<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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