“…You have barely enough clothes to wear, or a warm dress,
leave alone the will to notice me.
What can I do, what dare I offer you –
a poor captive who can never make you free?”
What recourse is there, after all, but to shed tears for you,
gathering them like pearls here, in my skirt for you?”
(Excerpt from Mahvash Sabet’s Lonely Prisoner)
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Teacher and poet Mahvash Sabet is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Evin prison, Tehran. She is one of a group of seven Baha’i leaders known as the “Yaran-i-Iran” – “Friends of Iran” – who have been detained since 2008 for their faith and activities related to running the affairs of the Bahá’í community in Iran. Mahvash Sabet began writing poetry in prison, and a collection of her poetry entitled Prison Poems was published in English translation on 1 April 2013.
PEN International is calling on the Iranian authorities to release Mahvash Sabet and all other writers imprisoned in Iran solely for exercising their right to legitimate freedom of expression.
To take more action for Mahvash Sabet visit here
To read more about, and take action for, all of the cases highlighted by PEN International on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer visit here