99 rán bičom: Fatemeh Ekhtesari  ^SK-IR

When Iranian poet Fatemeh Ekhtesari was sentenced to 99 lashes for shaking hands with a man and 20 years in prison for “insulting sacred Islamic symbols,” more than 100 poets signed a petition for her release. What was her (artistic) life like in a country that abandoned them, and what is it like to create under the threat of imprisonment? This event, part of Authors' Reading Month, will be hosted by Tomáš Hučko.

Fatemeh Ekhtesari اختصاری فاطمه حامیان managed to flee Iran illegally to Turkey, where after a year she was taken in by ICORN (The International Cities of Refuge Network), an organisation that offers protection to artists facing imminent danger in their home countries. Fatemeh is part of the literary movement known as “postmodern ghazal”, considered the most radical poetic group in contemporary Iran. Her work explores themes of sexuality, religion, gender, and the struggle for women’s rights. She published over a dozen poetry collections in Iran, with her first book banned after it was discovered she had handwritten missing words to bypass censorship.

The event is part of the ongoing Authors' Reading Month, this year held under the theme of Exile. In addition to Trenčín, it will also travel to Ostrava, Brno, Bratislava, Prešov, and Lviv. 

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