Iraqi writers still oppressed, but now by situation instead of Saddam...During the decades under Hussein, poets and other creative writers practiced their craft secretly or not at all. For all his brutality, Hussein was intelligent enough to recognize the power of language when infused with ideas and with passion, and he silenced writers suspected of using words as their weapons to oppose his regime.
Oppression still exists in Iraq, for bombings have made many people afraid to leave their homes, and fundamentalists who would oppose the honesty of literature that touches on the honesty of humanity - sensuality, sexuality, religious skepticism, spiritual exploration - remain a threat.
But in the steamy, broken building that serves as the offices of the Iraqi Writers Union, in the capital's busy Karada District, poets, novelists, essayists and short-story writers now gather daily to read their work aloud. They share photocopied versions of manuscripts that under Hussein would have led to a slashed tongue, a severed hand, years of prison, maybe death.
(From TEV)
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