Forbidden Voices
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FORBIDDEN vo1cES Travels to the frontiers of expression I d e to speak when Words can be dangerous. Words can be fatal. Why d o some peop e or . t h1s. means ns· k"mg t h eir· 1·1ves? Journa 1·1sts Jan z a hi an d F"inn y ago· met six artists in their cities of refuge and then visited their home countries in a n attempt to underStand why DE some people dare to speak. The journalists from Stavanger Aftenblad explore the frontlin es of freedom of expression and examine the conditions under which these artists have lived in Cuba, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Palestin e and Sri Lanka. This is also a book about the exile experience and six fates in the cities of refuge: Reykjavik, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Paris, Bergen, and Ithaca. "I know that today many writers and artists have to leave their country, live in exile. I would tell those people that - yes, it is difficult, but do not despair. We should not despair, but quietly continue our work. Words are not useless. Literature hos a great power. We must believe in it." SVETLANA ALEKSIJEVITSJ, NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATE 2015, AND ICORN WRITER~N-RESIDENCE JN GOTHENBURG CITY OF REFUGE 2006-2008 p Pelikanen.no PHOTOS: FINN E. VAGA . JACKET DESIGN: STEN E. MOE t:rJ ICORN INTERNATIONAL CITIES OF REFUGE NETWOAK Forbidden Voices ICORN is on independent international organi sation of cities and regions, offering safe havens for persecuted writers and artists; advancing freedom of expression, defending democratic values and promoting international solidarity. More than 70 cities around the globe offer a sole space where writers and artists at risk con live and work freely through the ICORN network. Since its foundation in 2006, ICORN member cities hove hosted more than 200 persecuted writers and artists. They are creative writers, non-fiction writers, journal ists, bloggers, musicians, visual artists, cartoonists, editors, translators and publishers. FORBIDDEN VOICES FOREWORD Free speech is under pressure. Not so long ago, many of us believed The stories these people tell are almost inconceivably powerful it was only a matter of time before freedom of expression, human and dramatic. They are also a useful reminder to those of us living rights and liberal democracy would be the norm throughout the in safe Western democracies with top rankings in all the indices of world. lnstead, we are witnessing the emergence of ever•stronger democracy and freedom of expression: these rights are not a given authoritarian forces, political leaders and regimes, which do not and they are not eternal, but something we must all fight for. Unlike see the value of criticism, opposition and the separation of powers, us, though, living our safe, free lives, and able to make speeches scorn facts and attack the free press. These authoritarian forces are about free expression at no risk to ourselves, these people have first• growing and advancing; liberal values are under attack. hand experience of what it means to be forbidden from saying what This book is about the people wbo refuse to be gagged. The people you think out loud. who say what they think out loud - even if their words expose them This series of articles was printed in Stavanger Aftenblad, which to the risk of persecution, imprisonment and even murder. we wish to thank for its generosity in helping make this global Berween May 2016 and May 2019, we visited six people who were in-depth journalistic project a reality. Our thanks also to Fritt Ord, forced to flee their homeland because they spoke freely. Each of which provided funding for both travel costs and the English trans the six has found a safe haven in a city of refuge - Reykjavik, Ber lations of the texts. We thank Stavanger municipality, which helped C> 2019 Pelllu1nen AS. St1van1eor www.~hkanen .no gen, Gothenburg, Ithaca (NY), Paris and Frankfurt - organized by make it possible for the articles to become a book.. And we thank Covtr dei11n: Sten MOI.' the International Cities of Refuge Nerwork (!CORN). They told us the ICORN organization in Stavanger for the considerable practical Covtr pho10: Finn E. Vi11 Book design ,nd lay-ouL Yngvt Knausgird their own dramatic stories up until the time they were forced to flee assistance and support it offered. Prmtms: GPS Croup, Sloveni, - and about life in exile, which is no bed of roses either. But above all, our thanks go to all the people we met on these Editor; Emk Bo ISBN 97&-82-8383-o66-8 After that, we travelled to the places the six had to leave: Cuba, journeys, to all the people who shared their stories with us - despite Bangladesh, Gaza, Sri Lanka, Iran and Turkey. There we met the the risk.. Thanks to all of you who spoke freely. This publ1at,on has r«e1ved support from s~vanaer !Commune, Friu Ord, ones who were left behind, friends and family. But we also met Stavanger Aftenblad 01 ICOR:N strong voices who either will not or cannot go into exile: people Stavanger, 01.09. 2or9 who believe, on the contrary, that they should remain in their Jan Zahl og Finn E. Vaga homeland and continue to speak out - even if that places them in ~, constant danger. STAVANGER KOMMUNE FRITT ORD $tavanger Aftenblad ICORN CUBA REYK AVIK TH E IS LAN D- H O PP E R FRO M HAVANA When young scientist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was called into his man ager's office one day and fired without warning, any plans he had for the future were swiftly crushed. Orlando had criticised Fidel Castro's Cuba. It was an act that could not be allowed to pass unpunished. Jan Zahl journalist I Finn E. Vaga photographer "Perhaps he'd been at La Cabana prison that morrung? Che liked to "I see 'The Beauty of Death.' I see the face of a man who took be present on the nights that his rivals were shot, he pulled the trig the lives of indi\riduals in order to try to create a new commun1t). ger on many of them hunself, he even invited guests to executions Perhaps that's what you have to do. I don't know." from time to time. He wanted to see \vhether his adversanes in the revolution died like men or penshed Wee cowards. Perhaps that's NO PARADISE ISLAND what he's thinking about, · Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo tells us. Cuba was not a socialist paradise for Orlando. While most Cubans, Everyone has seen Alberto Kordas photograph of the 31-year often poor, frustrated and hungry, have chosen to lie low and keep old hero of the revolution, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, taken on the their mouths shut -dreaming of emigrating, making it to Miami, n1orn1ng of the 5th \ttarch 1960 in Havana, Cuba. E\1eryone has perhaps - blogger, author and photographer Orlando spoke out considered his expression. As with the Mona L1sa's smile, man) about the problematic aspects of Life 1n Cuba. That is v,hy he no have \vondered v.•hat lurks behmd the iconic face What thoughts longer lives on the tropical island, but instead on the \Vind-swept, are runnmg through Che's mind beneath his black beret and the Arctic landmass situated just beneath the polar circle: Iceland. gold star on his forehead? Is he thinking about The Revolution? "Perhaps I was always meant to end up here, so far a\vay from the The People. the Soaalist Paradise 1n which nobody should '\Vant island I gre\V up on. I've moved from one island to another. And I'm for anything, the great fello\vship \Vhere ever)rone can find happi an island myself, an island here m Iceland, JUSt as I was \vhen I \\.> as ness? back rn Cuba," Orlando says. It remains a mystef) to all, including Orlando. Many a roman His beard has started to turn grey, but his long, curly hair nc revolutionary srudent, sofa d\•,elling radical. or left)• European remains dark and wild. He has next to no possessions; the book or c1t1zen of any other countr)'. for that matter, has hung a picture shelves in his sparsely furrushed home are almost bare, and the of Che on their \Vall, look111g up to him as a hero of the libera same can be said for the fridge. l lis only belongings are a laptop uon Cuban Orlando has somewhat different associations w1th the computer, a few 1ten1s of clothing and a fold-up chess board pur \VOrld's most famous portrait photograph, a picture that the pho chased in Iceland. tographer lumself atled 'Guernllcro Hero1co' - 'Heroic Guerilla We v1sit rune months after Orlando was first welcon1ed ro Rey Fighter'. kja\1ik. Spring has finally arrived in Norwa)', but late ,vintcr liI1gers 9 CLaA , alTI.J.f.WI~ ORLANDO LU IS PARDO in Jcdand The rolling h1II> •rr -i,tcklcd wnh p.ichcs of Sl10" md mo . and pcppcnng the Land>apc arr dad. ruw-colourtd dump,, , ha Above u,, • blanket of Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (b. 1971) of gr.w remmJJCcnt of Don,ld Trump• ir. , grty cluud, hnger1 low m tlu: ky The liCC11t of rottr.'ll • fills the Award-winning Cuban author, blogger and photographer, originally qualified as a biochemist. Jir, Sulphur Over the mu,-., of the followm~ days, the tcmpmnurc IJ lort=t Arrested on nu merous occasions for exp ressing criticism about the to n,ach a hog), of s' C ,n RrykpvtlL In H,vm.i, 11 ...,n be •c Cuban regime. "The wrathtr 1m·1 an IJ>UC ,.hen you li,i: Ill theory Plus.