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LiteratureGlobal issues

Why do dictators fear literature?

December 9, 2023

All over the world, writers are being threatened, arrested, tortured, and even murdered. And it's only getting worse. Arts Unveiled spoke to authors from around the globe and asked them why dictators are so afraid of literature.

https://p.dw.com/p/4ZxDh
Sir Salman Rushdie
Image: Andrew Matthews/AP/picture alliance

In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, alleging that his novel "The Satanic Verses” was blasphemous. It was 33 years before an attempted assassination was carried out, nearly killing him. On August 12, 2022, the renowned author was critically injured in a knife attack.

Stella Nyanzi, writer + activist from Uganda
Image: Sumy Sadurni/AFP/Getty Images

 

Ugandan writer Stella Nyanzi has been imprisoned twice in a high-security prison, while her family has been threatened because of a poem she wrote insulting President Yoweri Museveni.

 

Gioconda Belli, writer + activist from Nicaragua
Image: Courtesy Gioconda Belli

 

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega revoked the citizenship of bestselling author Gioconda Belli, confiscating all her property. She lives in exile but says she will continue writing to fight against an unjust regime.

 

 

Burhan Sönmez | Writer + President PEN International
Image: Marilla Sicilia/ZUMA/IMAGO

Burhan Sönmez, president of the writers’ association PEN International, says that the number of writers being persecuted and driven into exile has been increasing worldwide for years. A Turkish Kurd, he was also imprisoned under various Turkish regimes — and continues to receive death threats to this day.

 

Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky
Image: Hannelore Förster/IMAGO

Dmitry Glukhovsky is a bestselling author of dystopian novels. And he’s been living in exile from Russia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Only a few weeks ago, he was accused of being a "foreign agent” and was sentenced to eight years in prison. For condemning the war, he’s been accused of being an "enemy of the state.”

Arts Unveiled spoke with Salman Rushdie, Stella Nyanzi, Gioconda Belli, Burhan Sönmez, and Dmitry Glukhovsky about the power of novels and poems — and why they all refuse to give up.

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Arts Unveiled — Experiencing and understanding the art world

Arts Unveiled dives deep into the international creative scene, uncovering new ideas and explaining cultural phenomena that shape our history, present and future. Who are the artists? What are their greatest works of art? And how are they having an impact? Where can we find their exciting projects?