Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Instructions Within
WORK NOTES: trans by Mona Kareem
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1980
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Saudi Arabia
NATIONALITY: Palestinian
Palestinian-Saudi * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashraf_Fayadh * http://www.fahmyfoundation.org/ashraf-fayadh.html * https://pen.org/advocacy-case/ashraf-fayadh/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1980, in Saudi Arabia; son of Abdul-Satar Fayadh.
EDUCATION:Attended Al-Azhar University (Palestine).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, artist, and curator. Organizer and curator of exhibitions of Saudi art in Europe and Saudi Arabia, including Mostly Visible, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2013, and Rhizoma, Venice Biennale, 2013.
MEMBER:German PEN (honorary member), Edge of Arabia (British-Arabian arts organization).
AWARDS:Award for Freedom of Expression (joint award with Malini Subramaniam), Oxfam Novib/PEN, 2017, in recognition of courage in the face of great adversity.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Ashraf Fayadh, an artist and poet, was born in Saudi Arabia in 1980 to Palestinian parents. He is a curator of artistic and cultural exhibitions for Edge of Arabia, a group representing collaboration between British and Saudi Arabian artists. “He went on to curate shows in Jeddah and at the 2013 Venice Biennale, which showcased an emerging generation of Saudi artists.” noted David Batty and Mona Mahmood, writing in the London Guardian. Fayadh “is credited with taking Saudi contemporary art to a global audience,” commented a writer on the British Broadcasting Company Web site.
In more recent times, Fayadh has become well known as a figure in the midst of a human rights crisis in Saudi Arabia. Fayadh was arrested by Saudi Arabian religious authorities in August 2013, following a reported argument he had with an unidentified man in the city of Abha, Saudi Arabia. The man had accused Fayadh of multiple religious crimes, including making insulting comments about God, the Prophet Mohammad, and Saudi Arabia. He was also accused of showing a book of poems that supported atheism.
After being released and rearrested in 2014, Fayadh was charged with apostasy, a religious crime in Saudi Arabia, and sentenced to death. He was charged with refuting Allah and the Prophet, and also with various other crimes such as “spreading atheism and promoting it to the youth, refuting the Koran and the Day of Resurrection, and indulging in illicit relationships with women and saving their photos on his phone,” according to a writer on the Fahmy Foundation Web site.
Fayadh’s situation brought significant reaction from human rights organizations around the world. Some believe that Fayadh was being targeted by Saudi Arabian religious hardliners for his creative work and for taking a stand against religious persecution in Saudi Arabia.
In February 2016, Fayadh’s death sentence was overturned by a Saudi Arabian court. His punishment was reduced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes. Though Fayadh had been spared death, his punishment was still considered too severe and was denounced again by human rights organizations and the international literary community. He remains in prison in Saudi Arabia.
A collection of Fayadh’s poetry, Instructions Within, was published in 2016. Presented in both Arabic and English, the collection gives additional relevance to Fayadh’s position as a creative artist and someone who has suffered significantly for his views. The collection was published first in Arabic in 2008 and was later banned in Saudi Arabia. The book has numerous “poignant” works, commented a reviewer in Publishers Weekly, who added that it is the context of Fayadh’s situation as a religious prisoner in Saudi Arabia—the “difficulties of publishing, the gravity of the poet’s situation—that heralds Fayadh as a champion of brutal, honest poetry.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Guardian (London, England), February 2, 2016, David Batty and Mona Mahmood, “Palestinian Poet Ashraf Fayadh’s Death Sentence Quashed by Saudi Court”; March 21, 2016, David Batty, “Jailed Palestinian Poet Pays Tribute to Father Who ‘Died of Sorrow.'”
Publishers Weekly, October 17, 2016, review of Instructions Within, p. 48.
ONLINE
Arabic Literature (in English) Web site, http://www.arablit.org/ (June 23, 2016), “Ashraf Fayadh Poem Read before UN Human Rights Council.”
British Broadcasting Company Web site, http://www.bbc.com/ (February 2, 2016), “Ashraf Fayadh: Saudi Court Quashes Poet’s Death Sentence.”
English PEN Web site, http://www.englishpen.org/ (February 2, 2017), Cat Lucas, “Saudi Arabia: Poet Ashraf Fayadh Continues to Serve Lengthy Prison Sentence.”
Fahmy Foundation Web site, http://www.fahmyfoundation.org/ (July 22, 2017), biography of Ashraf Fayadh.
PEN America Web site, http://www.pen.org/ (July 22, 2017), biography of Ashraf Fayadh.*
Ashraf Fayadh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ashraf Fayadh (Arabic: اشرف فياض, * 1980 in Saudi Arabia) is an artist and poet[1] of Palestinian origin (he is the son of refugees from Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip) who lives in Saudi Arabia. He has been active in the art scene in Saudi Arabia and has organized and curated exhibitions of Saudi art in Europe and Saudi Arabia. He was active in the British-Arabian arts organization, Edge of Arabia.[2] As of November 2015 he has been sentenced to death for apostasy.[3] In the early part of February 2016, the death sentence was overturned and the Saudi court imposed an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes instead. Fayadh must also repent through an announcement in official media.[4]
Conviction for apostasy
After an argument with a fellow artist at a soccer game, Fayadh was detained by the country's religious police in 2013 in Abha, in southwest Saudi Arabia, released on bail, then rearrested and tried in early 2014. He was sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes. On appeal a Saudi appeals court returned the case to the lower court where a new judge was assigned to the case. On November 17, 2015 Fayadh was sentenced to death for apostasy. Used as evidence against him were several poems within his book Instructions Within, Twitter posts, and conversations he had in a coffee shop in Abha.[5][6][7] Prior to this death sentence ruling, Fayadh was accused of having promoted atheism in this same book of poems Instructions Within, which was published in 2008.
Fayadh’s supporters believe he is being punished by hardliners for posting a video online showing a man being lashed in public by the religious police in Abha. Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Fayadh’s death sentence showed Saudi Arabia’s "complete intolerance of anyone who may not share government-mandated religious, political and social views".[2][7]
Fayadh became Honorary Member of German PEN which is also associated with famous PEN International as a member country, at December 2, 2015, combined by a new protest note.[8] In November 2015 the Berlin International Literature Festival published an appeal to support Ashraf Fayadh with a Worldwide Reading on January 14, 2016.[9] In January 2017, Fayadh shared 2017 Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression with Malini Subramaniam.[10]
Palestinian artist and poet Ashraf Fayadh was detained at a café in Abha in southern Saudi Arabia in August 2013. Members of Saudi Arabia’s Committee on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also known as the religious morality police, arrested him after a man reported that Fayadh made insulting public comments about God, the Prophet Mohamed, and Saudi Arabia. The same man added that Fayadh passed around a poetry book he wrote that allegedly promoted atheism. He was released after one day.
Fayadh was arrested again on January 1, 2014, and charged with a number of apostasy-related offenses, including denouncing Allah himself,” and the Prophet Mohammed, spreading atheism and promoting it to the youth, refuting the Koran and the Day of Resurrection, and indulging in illicit relationships with women and saving their photos on his phone. Fayadh denied all the charges and stated that he met the women in an art gallery.
According to Human Rights Watch, on May 26, 2014, the General Court of Abha convicted Fayadh and sentenced him to four years in prison and 800 lashes. The court rejected the prosecutor’s request for a death sentence for blasphemy based on court testimony indicating “hostility” between Fayadh and the man who reported him, and it cited Fayadh’s statement of repentance made in court.
Excerpts from his poetry book,Instructions Witihin, published in 2008 and banned in Saudi Arabia, were used against him in court to support the charges.
The prosecutor appealed the ruling and the case was eventually sent back to the lower court.
On November 17, 2015, Fayadh was sentenced to death for apostasy for alleged blasphemous statements he made during a discussion group and in his poetry book. The judge ruled that Fayadh’s repentance was not enough to avoid the death sentence.
The appeals court and the Supreme Court must approve the sentence.
Fayadh is Saudi-born and remains officially stateless. He is a member of the British-Saudi art collective Edge of Arabia and has been credited with curating art shows in Jeddah and the Venice Biennale to promote the work of Saudi contemporary artists. In 2013 he curated “Mostly Visible,”an exhibition in Jeddah that brought together the work of 30 artists.
“They accused me [of] atheism and spreading some destructive thoughts in society,” said Fayadh to The Guardian newspaper.
He added that his book, Instructions Within, was “just about me being [a] Palestinian refugee, about cultural and philosophical issues. But the religious extremists explained it as destructive ideas against God.”
Fayadh stated that he was not able to appoint a lawyer because his ID was confiscated during his initial arrest in 2014. He also confirmed that the judge never spoke to him in court before announcing the verdict.
On February 3, 2016 a Saudi court overturned the death sentence imposing an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes instead. He must also repent through an announcement in official media.
Ashraf Fayadh
Saudi Arabia
Status: In Prison
Ashraf Fayadh is a Palestinian poet, artist, and curator living in Saudi Arabia, who was sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes on charges of apostasy on February 2, 2016. He was initially sentenced to death in 2015. Fayadh was first arrested in 2013 on accusations stemming from his poetry collection Instructions Within and an alleged personal altercation with a man who reported him to Saudi religious authorities.
Case History
Fayadh was originally arrested in August 2013 following an argument with a man in the southwestern city of Abha in Saudi Arabia, where Fayadh resided. The man reported him to Saudi Arabia’s religious authorities and he was arrested, but released shortly after. On January 1, 2014, Fayadh was rearrested on charges of apostasy and having illicit relations with women. The charge of apostasy was based on testimony from the man from the argument in 2013 and from two officers from the religious police that had arrested him. The individuals also pointed to supposed atheistic and blasphemous themes in his poetry collection Instructions Within, published in 2008. These poems are ruminations about Fayadh’s life as a Palestinian refugee, as well as cultural and philosophical issues. The charges of illicit relations with women stem from photographs on Fayadh’s phone of him pictured with women, but individuals who attended one of Fayadh’s exhibits have repeatedly stated that the women are fellow artists and friends of Fayadh. Fayadh’s supporters also believe he is being punished by Saudi authorities because he posted a video online showing religious police publicly lashing a man. There are concerns that he is being targeted because of his status as a Palestinian refugee as well, although he was born in Saudi Arabia. Fayadh was born into a stateless family of Palestinian origin, and his only identification documents are issued by the government of Egypt.
The judicial proceedings against Fayadh have lacked any semblance of due process. Saudi police confiscated his identification documents after his arrest in January 2014, then denied him legal representation because he did not possess proper identification. The court case against him has dragged on for two years, and on November 17, 2015, he was found guilty of both charges and sentenced to death by beheading for the charge of apostasy. Fayadh’s father suffered a fatal stroke after learning of the death sentence punishment. Fayadh’s lawyers appealed the death sentence, and in February 2016 the sentence was changed to eight years in prison and 800 lashes.
Fayadh has worked throughout the years to serve as an unofficial ambassador for the small contemporary art scene in Saudi Arabia. He is involved with the art platform Edge of Arabia, which facilitates collaboration between Middle Eastern and Western countries. In 2013, he organized an exhibit, Mostly Visible, in the Saudi city of Jeddah. He co-curated the exhibit Rhizoma as part of Edge of Arabia’s exhibition in 2013 at the Venice Biennale. On December 2, 2015, Fayadh became an honorary member of German PEN.
Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh's death sentence quashed by Saudi court
Panel of judges downgrades punishment for apostasy conviction to eight years in prison and 800 lashes
Ashraf Fayadh
Ashraf Fayadh’s lawyer argued the poet had not been given a fair trial. Photograph: AP
This article is 1 year old
David Batty and Mona Mahmood
Tuesday 2 February 2016 15.19 GMT
Last modified on Tuesday 2 May 2017 19.01 BST
A Saudi court has overturned the death sentence of a Palestinian poet accused of renouncing Islam, imposing an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes instead. He must also repent through an announcement in official media.
The decision by a panel of judges came after Ashraf Fayadh’s lawyer argued his conviction was seriously flawed because he was denied a fair trial. In a briefing on the verdict, Abdulrahman al-Lahem said the judgment revoked the death sentence but upheld that the poet was guilty of apostasy.
In a memo posted on Twitter, Lahem details Fayadh’s new punishment. He is sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes, to be carried out on 16 occasions, and must renounce his poetry on Saudi state media.
Cultural figures and rights groups call for release of poet facing execution
Read more
Lahem welcomed the overturning of the death sentence but reaffirmed Fayadh’s innocence and announced they would launch an appeal and ask for bail.
Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Instead of beheading Ashraf Fayadh, a Saudi court has ordered a lengthy imprisonment and flogging. No one should face arrest for peacefully expressing opinions, much less corporal punishment and prison. Saudi justice officials must urgently intervene to vacate this unjust sentence.”
The author Irvine Welsh said: “When this twisted barbarism is thought of as a compromise, it’s way past time western governments stopped dealing with this pervert regime.”
The death sentence imposed in November provoked a worldwide outcry.
Hundreds of leading authors, artists and actors, including the director of Tate Modern, Chris Dercon, the British poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and actor Helen Mirren, have appealed for his release. More than 60 international arts and human rights groups, including Amnesty International and the writers’ association PEN International, have launched a campaign calling on the Saudi authorities and western governments to save him. Readings of his poetry in support of his case took place in 44 countries last week.
Jo Glanville, the director of English PEN, which appealed for Fayadh’s release, said: “It is a relief that Ashraf Fayadh no longer faces execution, but this is a wholly disproportionate and shocking sentence. It will cause dismay around the world for all Ashraf’s many supporters. The charges against him should have been dropped and he should be a free man today. We will continue to campaign for his release.”
Fayadh, who has mental health problems, has spent almost two years in prison in Abha, a city in the south-west of the ultra-conservative kingdom.
The 35-year-old Palestinian refugee rose to prominence as an artist and curator for the British-Saudi art group Edge of Arabia. He went on to curate shows in Jeddah and at the 2013 Venice Biennale, which showcased an emerging generation of Saudi artists.
But in August 2013, he was detained by the mutaween (religious police) following a complaint that he was cursing against Allah and the prophet Muhammad, insulting Saudi Arabia and distributing a book of his poems that promoted atheism. Fayadh said the complaint arose from a personal dispute during a discussion in a cafe in Abha.
Although he was released after one day he was arrested again on 1 January 2014 and detained at a police station before being transferred to the local prison 27 days later. At his trial in May 2014, he was sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes by the general court in Abha.
He was also found guilty of storing images of women on his phone, which friends and colleagues said were artists appearing in his show at the Jeddah art fair.
After his appeal was dismissed Fayadh was retried on 17 November 2015 and sentenced to death by a new panel of judges, who ruled that his repentance did not prevent his execution.
But appeal documents submitted by his lawyer last month argued that Fayadh’s conviction was based on uncorroborated allegations and ignored evidence that he had a mental illness.
Fayadh’s father had a stroke after hearing his son was to be beheaded. Fayadh was unable to visit him before he died last month, nor was he allowed to attend his funeral.
In documents considered by the panel of judges on Tuesday, Lahem argued that Fayadh’s initial arrest in 2013 was unlawful as it was not ordered by the state prosecution service. The allegation of apostasy made by Shaheen bin Ali Abu Mismar, who is alleged to have had a personal dispute with the poet, was not corroborated by other evidence, which goes against the principles of sharia law, he argued.
The appeal document also stated that the November ruling ignored testimony by defence witnesses in Fayadh’s 2014 trial who said Abu Mismar was lying, and from the accuser’s uncle, who indicated he was not truthful. It contended that the “judiciary cannot rely on [his evidence] due to the possibility that it is malicious”.
Additional reporting by Mona Mahmood
Ashraf Fayadh is a Palestinian artist and poet born in Saudi Arabia in 1980. He attended college at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City in 2001, and has been active in the art scene in Saudi Arabia with organizations like Edge of Arabia, a British-Arabian art collaboration. Ashraf has also curated exhibitions of Saudi art during Jeddah Art week in Saudi Arabia and Europe at the 55th Venice Biennale. He is currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for apostasy, for the language in these poems.
Mona Kareem is a poet, translator, and journalist based in New York. She published two collections of Arabic poetry in 2002 and 2004, some of which were translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Farsi, and Kurdish. Her third poetry collection Muharij al-Uzla (the clown of solitude) is forthcoming this winter. She is the translator of Ashraf Fayadh's INSTRUCTIONS WITHIN (Operating System, 2016). Mona is a doctoral candidate in the Comparative Literature program at Binghamton University. Her dissertation explores issues of subalternity in the Arab feminist novel. She is a founding member of Status Hour, an academic audio journal. Mona pays her bills through teaching writing classes and researching migrant labor in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia: poet Ashraf Fayadh continues to serve lengthy prison sentence
Posted 2 February 2017 by Cat Lucas & filed under Campaigns, Press
English PEN to publish UK edition of Fayadh's 'Instructions Within', translated by Mona Kareem
Facebook29Twitter
Pinterest0LinkedIn0Share
On 2 February 2016, the poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh was sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes. A year later, despite ongoing calls for his release, Fayadh remains in prison.
In the year since, we’ve continued to actively campaign for Fayadh’s release – holding regular monthly vigils at the Saudi Embassy in London, highlighting his case at festivals and events across the UK, and lobbying the authorities both in Saudi Arabia and here in the UK.
In January 2017, we were delighted that Fayadh was awarded the Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression in recognition of his courage in the face of great adversity. Carles Torner, Executive Director of PEN International, stated:
This award is not only our way of honouring courageous writers and journalists who continue to fight for freedom of expression at great personal risk, it is also a way of telling those who seek to silence them that the world is watching.
Despite our best efforts and those of many other organisations and individuals the world over, Fayadh continues to languish in prison. It is therefore crucial that we keep up the pressure, both on the Saudi authorities to release him and on our own governments to publicly condemn his detention and call for his release.
In order to maintain awareness of his case, we are delighted to announce that English PEN has been invited to publish a UK edition of Fayadh’s Instructions Within, translated by Mona Kareem. Ten pages from the collection, first published by the Beirut-based Dar al-Farabi in 2008 and later banned from distribution in Saudi Arabia, were among the evidence used to convict him. The Operating System, an independent US publisher, has since worked with Kareem and others to put together a US version and we are honoured to have been asked to produce a UK version, the proceeds of which will go towards our ongoing campaign in support of Fayadh’s release.
If you like to receive a notification once the publication is available please email cat@englishpen.org with the subject title ‘Instructions Within’. In the meantime, please continue to show your support for Fayadh and other writers at risk in Saudi Arabia.
Take action
Show your support for Ashraf Fayadh by sending messages, poetry or artwork via the dedicated website com
Share details of his case and examples of his writingwith friends and colleagues and on social media. #FreeAshraf
Join our monthly vigils at the Saudi Embassy in London
Write to the Saudi authorities calling for his immediate and unconditional release – more details below.
Please send appeals:
Raising concerns over the continued detention of Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh;
Urging the government to immediately commute his sentence of 800 lashes, as it violates the absolute prohibition in international law against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
Calling on the authorities to release Ashraf Fayadh immediately and unconditionally, as he is held solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression;
Calling on Saudi Arabia to ratify, without reservation, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Send appeals to:
His Majesty
King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques
Office of His Majesty the King
Royal Court, Riyadh
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: (via Ministry of the Interior) +966 1 403 3125
Salutation: Your Majesty Crown Prince and Minister of the Interior
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Ministry of the Interior
P.O.Box 2933, Airport Road,
Riyadh 11134
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: +966 1 403 3125
Salutation: Your Royal Highness Minister of Justice
His Excellency Shaykh Dr Mohammed bin Abdulkareem Al-Issa
Ministry of Justice,
University Street
Riyadh 11137 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Fax: + 966 1 401 1741 + 966 11 402 0311
Salutation: Your Excellency
It is recommended that you send a copy of your appeals via the diplomatic representative for Saudi Arabia in your country. Contact details for embassies can be found here.
Ashraf Fayadh: Saudi court quashes poet's death sentence
2 February 2016
From the section Middle East
These are external links and will open in a new window
Share this with Facebook
Share this with Twitter
Share this with Messenger
Share this with Email
Share
Image copyright AP
Image caption Ashraf Fayadh is credited with taking Saudi contemporary art to a global audience
A Saudi Arabian court has overturned the death sentence of a Palestinian poet convicted of apostasy.
Ashraf Fayadh was instead sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes, his lawyer said.
Mr Fayadh has denied the charges, claiming that another man had made false accusations against him.
His death sentence caused an international outcry with hundreds of writers, actors and artists appealing for his release.
Mr Fayadh's lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahim, said the court in the south-western city of Abha had also ruled that his client would have to issue an announcement of repentance in official media. The lashes are to be carried out in 16 sessions, he added.
Mr Lahim said the defence would appeal against the new ruling and ask for Mr Fayadh's release.
Mr Fayadh was arrested in August 2013 after a Saudi citizen alleged he was promoting atheism and spreading blasphemous ideas, according to Amnesty International.
He was released the next day but rearrested in January 2014 and charged with apostasy - the renunciation of religious belief.
Global protest
The charge apparently related to his collection of poetry, Instructions Within, published in 2008, which critics said questioned religion and spread atheist thought.
Mr Fayadh, 35, was also charged with violating Saudi Arabia's anti-cyber crime law by taking and storing photos of women on his mobile phone.
In April 2014, a court in Abha sentenced Mr Fayadh to four years in prison and 800 lashes for violating the anti-cyber crime law. But it found his repentance in relation to the charge of apostasy to be satisfactory and not requiring further punishment.
However, an appeals court overturned the ruling and sent the case back to the original court which sentenced him to death for apostasy on 17 November 2015.
In January, hundreds of writers took part in a worldwide reading of selected poems and other texts in support of Mr Fayadh.
The International Literature Festival Berlin called on the US and UK governments to intervene on Mr Fayadh's behalf and also demanded that the UN suspend Saudi Arabia from the Human Rights Council "until its abysmal record on upholding civil liberties improves".
Mr Fayadh, who was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian refugee parents, is credited with taking Saudi contemporary art to a global audience.
Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic code mean the crimes of murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
Last year, the kingdom executed 153 people, according to a tally by the AFP news agency.
Jailed Palestinian poet pays tribute to father who 'died of sorrow'
Ashraf Fayadh, whose father died after hearing his son was to be beheaded, has written his first poem since he was imprisoned two years ago in Saudi Arabia for renouncing Islam
• Tense Times, a poem by Ashraf Fayadh
Ashraf Fayadh
‘I just hope I will survive and that people continue to remember me. I am scared to be forgotten’ … Ashraf Fayadh’. Photograph: AP
This article is 1 year old
Shares
1,506
Comments
27
David Batty
Monday 21 March 2016 17.00 GMT
Last modified on Tuesday 2 May 2017 18.56 BST
A Palestinian poet imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for renouncing Islam has written his first poem since he was incarcerated two years ago, provoked by the loss of his father who died after hearing his son was to be beheaded.
The poem, entitled Tense Times, explores Ashraf Fayadh’s grief and the isolation of his imprisonment in the city of Abha in the south west of the ultraconservative kingdom.
His father, Abdul-Satar Fayadh, suffered a fatal heart attack last November and his family believe this was caused by the shock of learning that his son had been sentenced to death. The poet was not allowed to attend the funeral.
In the poem, published by the Guardian on World Poetry Day, Fayadh recalls how he last saw his 82-year-old father “through thick [prison] glass” and questions “what good is it to be alive … while others die from sorrow over you?”
The 35-year-old Palestinian refugee also writes of being besieged by soldiers, laws and regimes.
In a message relayed with the poem by a friend, he said: “I am in good health and staying positive but I am alone. Only my mother visits me twice a week. I just hope I will survive and that people continue to remember me. I am scared to be forgotten.”
Fayadh, who is also a leading member of Saudi Arabia’s nascent contemporary art scene, was jailed in 2014 following a complaint that he was cursing against Allah and the prophet Muhammad and distributing a book of his poems that promoted atheism.
Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh's death sentence quashed by Saudi court
Read more
His lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahem, appealed against his conviction in January, arguing it was seriously flawed because he was denied a fair trial. A panel of judges in Abha last month quashed the order to execute Fayadh, but upheld the charge of apostasy, imposing an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes instead. He must also repent through an announcement in official media.
Irvine Welsh, one of hundreds of leading writers campaigning for Fayadh’s release, said of the poem: “It is a bleak, despairing piece of work, and the only thing that mitigates against the hopelessness of its message is its existence – that he was able to produce it and can share it with the world.”
Advertisement
Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern, who visited an exhibition in Jeddah curated by Fayadh, said the poem conveyed how “prison feels like an endless cycle, a tunnel without light at the end”. He added: “He seems to wonder as if there is an outside left. He seems to want to conquer his own grave.”
Writer and activist Mona Eltahawy said the poem gave her goosebumps. “[It] is a reminder of how destructive the Saudi regime’s injustice is not just on the individuals it imprisons but on their loved ones. But Ashraf’s words are also a reminder that he will not be silenced.”
Poet Andrew McMillan, who is writing a poem in response to Fayadh’s case for the English PEN Modern Literature festival next month, said the line “other humans cannot maintain neutrality” seemed “to be a plea to the wider world that we can’t be indifferent to these kinds of injustices”.
The poem comes as Fayadh’s legal team makes a final bid to get him released. The appeal court is now considering an objection to their revised sentence. There will be no public hearing and his lawyer is not permitted to argue his case.
If the court refuses to drop the apostasy charge, Fayadh’s supporters will ask for a royal pardon, which might lead to him being deported from Saudi Arabia. It is customary for these to be issued during Ramadan, which is in June.
Ashraf Fayadh Poem Read Before UN Human Rights Council
By mlynxqualey on June 23, 2016 • ( 2 )
Yesterday at the United Nations, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) Director of Advocacy, Elizabeth O’Casey, read a poem by Ashraf Fayadh — the Palestinian poet serving eight years and 800 lashes in Saudi Arabia — before the delegation from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Human Rights Council:
ashraf1_0According to a statement published online by IHEU:
O’Casey said she was using her statement during a debate on ‘human rights situations of concern’, to speak the words of Fayadh himself, since he is banned from speaking them in Saudi Arabia, where he lives.
“Not only did we want to raise his case and give him a voice,” O’Casey said, “but we were also keen to see whether Saudi Arabia would tolerate ‘blasphemous’ words they have punished so severely at home, being spoken uninterrupted at the UN.”
Her statement in full as published on the IHEU site:
UN Human Rights Council, 32nd Session (13th June – 1st July 2016)
General Debate on Item 4 – Human Rights Situations of Concern
Elizabeth O’Casey
Ashraf Fayadh is a Palestinain poet who is currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia – a country where atheists are legally defined as terrorists. He was accused of “spreading atheism”, of insulting “the divine self”, and objecting to concepts of fate as acts of God. He was also linked to exposing brutality by the Saudi religious police.
For this, he was sentenced to death for “apostasy”, to be carried out via beheading by sword. Earlier this year, Fayadh’s death sentence was overturned, and he was re-sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes.
We have of course, raised Fayadh’s case with this Council before, as we have been raising, like many, the cases of Raif Badawi, Waleed Abulkhair, Ali al-Nimr and others
And many times argued that, as a member of this Council, the pre-eminent body tasked with protecting and promoting human rights, Saudi Arabia has a clear and uncompromising responsibility to uphold and respect the highest standards of human rights.
But our arguments and words have fallen on deaf ears.
There has been no change.
So, instead we end this statement today with Fayadh’s own words; the words for which he is currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, and for some time threatened with state murder.
Since Ashraf Fayadh cannot speak them at home, I trust I can read them here, in the very forum created to promote all rights – including freedom of expression and belief – universally and unashamedly with the freedom Fayadh himself deserves as a human being just seeking to add a little reason and beauty to the world.
Prophets have retired
so do not wait, for a prophet to be resurrected for you.
And for you,
for you the observers bring their daily reports
and earn their high wages.
How much money is necessary
for a life of dignity.
”الأنبياء تقاعدوا..
فلا تنتظروا نبيا يبعث لكم.. ومن أجلكم
من أجلكم يقدم المراقبون تقاريرَ يومية
ويتفاضون أجوراً عاليةً
كم هو المال ضروريٌ
من أجل حياة كريمة”
Poems by Ashraf Fayadh in English:
Ashraf Fayadh, from Instructions Within: ‘The Last of the Line of Refugee Descendants’, translated by Jonathan Wright
Ashraf Fayadh, from Instructions Within: ‘A Melancholy Made of Dough,’ translated by Tariq Alhaydar
Ashraf Fayadh, from Instructions Within: Four Short Poems, translated by Jonathan Wright
Ashraf Fayadh, from Instructions Within: “A Space in the Void,” translated by Jonathan Wright
Ashraf Fayadh, from Instructions Within: “On the Virtues of Oil over Blood” translated by Mona Zaki
Ashraf Fayadh, from Instructions Within: “The Name of a Masculine Dream” translated by Mona Zaki
Inspired by Ashraf Fayadh
Youssef Rakha, uncollected: ‘Listen Ashraf,’ translated by Robin Moger
Poems by Ashraf Fayadh in French
Ashraf Fayadh, from Instructions de l’intérieur: “Les Moustaches de Frida Kalo’ and Other Poems,” ©Traduction Tahar BEKRI
Poems by Ashraf Fayadh in Spanish
Ashraf Fayadh, from Las instrucciones están adentro, “Los últimos descendientes de los Refugiados,” Del árabe al español: Shadi Rohana y Lawrence Schimel
Poems by Ashraf Fayadh in Finnish
Ašraf Fayyad, from Instructions Within, “Pakolaisten Viimeinen Jälkeläinen,” suomennos: Sampsa Peltonen
Poems by Ashraf Fayadh in Turkish
In Turkish Translation, Eşref Feyyâd’s ‘Hikmet’ and Other Poems
Poems by Ashraf Fayadh in Nepali
https://arablit.org/2016/01/23/a-space-in-the-void-and-other-poems-by-ashraf-fayadh-in-nepali/
Instructions Within
263.42 (Oct. 17, 2016): p48.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Instructions Within
Ashraf Fayadh, trans. from the Arabic by Mona Kareem, with Mona Zaki and Jonathan
Wright. The Operating System (SPD, dist.), $28 trade paper (310p) ISBN 978-0-9860505-7-2
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Already entangled in international controversy, this first collection by Palestinian poet Fayadh has come to represent more than the poems it contains. In 2015, Fayadh was sentenced to death for apostasy under Saudi law--partially for this book. His sentence has since been lessened, but the world, and the literary community, has come to associate the poet and his poetry with the right to freedom of expression. Unsurprisingly, many poems coalesce around themes of exile and disillusionment. "And I left the homeland," Fayadh writes, "returning again and again/ but this exhausted home is too packed now/ for a heart-turned hotel." Readers cannot ignore the circumstances of Fayadh's life, especially since the pages of this dual-language English-Arabic edition flow in what English readers would consider reverse order. In contrast to the heft of his themes, Fayadh writes aphoristically, with punchy truths and tongue-in-cheek cleverness belying the transgressive nature of his writing. "The prophets have gone into retirement/ so don't expect one to come and save you," he writes in both jest and lament. Though the book has many poignant moments, it's the context--the difficulties of publishing, the gravity of the poet's situation--that heralds Fayadh as a champion of brutal, honest poetry. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Instructions Within." Publishers Weekly, 17 Oct. 2016, p. 48. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468700012&it=r&asid=4b86afdf5b0ec6c426230752b8b52ec9. Accessed 3 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468700012