16 Dec 16 | Events, Magazine, Volume 45.04 Winter 2016 Extras
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Join Index on Censorship for a drinks reception and conversation to celebrate the launch of our latest award-winning magazine, Fashion Rules, Dressing to oppress: why dress codes and freedom clash. The evening will explore how fashion rules can be used to oppress and how responses can challenge and confront, in the glamorous surroundings of one of Google’s London offices .
We’ll hear from an expert panel, including Maggie Alderson, former editor of Elle magazine, Regina Jane Jere-Malanda, editor of New African Woman magazine, award-winning documentary maker Laura Silvia Battaglia and fashion historian Amber Butchart.
In the upcoming issue, models Lily Cole and Daphne Selfe discuss why changes in society are reflected in the clothes we (are allowed to) wear, while writers from around the world look at indigenous dress in Nigeria, oppression of Indonesian punks today as well as fashion and freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. Plus, Donald Trump in a fur thong courtesy of cartoonist Martin Rowson, poetry from Paulo Scott and a never before seen English translation of a short story by legendary Argentine writer Haroldo Conti.
Order your high-quality print copy of our fashion special here, or take out a digital subscription from anywhere in the world via Exact Editions (just £18* for the year). Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship fight for free expression worldwide.
*Will be charged at local exchange rate outside the UK.
Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Fashion Rules” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left”][vc_column_text]The winter 2016 issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at fashion and how people both express freedom through what they wear.
Contributors include Lily Cole, Daphne Selfe, Linda Grant, Bibi Russell, Katy Werlin, Jang Jin-sung, Maggie Alderson and Eliza Vitri Handayani.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”82377″ img_size=”medium” style=”vc_box_shadow” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2016/12/fashion-rules/” css=”.vc_custom_1481889636739{background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/volume-45-04-winter-2016-700×933.jpg?id=82377) !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Fashion Rules” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left”][vc_column_text]In print, online. In your mailbox, on your iPad.
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14 Dec 16 | Index in the Press
Karen Bradley is not the woman off The Apprentice but probably wishes that she was. Instead of swanning about on telly looking theatrically unimpressed with the antics of millennial selfies-on-legs as Karren Brady does, Ms Bradley is quiet and close-cloistered in the middle of an unpublic public consultation designed to delay the moment when one side or another in the great dispute over press regulation decides that she’s a total loser. January 10 will be the end of the public (99.99 per cent blissfully unaware of their historic mission) being consulted, at which point the secretary of state for culture, media and sport — for it is she — has to make a decision. Read the full article
13 Dec 16 | News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
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Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
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Women’s Voices by Meltem Arikan
The piece of land surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…big big men are leeching children’s blood, viciously…those who know know, those who know keep quiet, those who see look away…children with dying spirits imprisoned in their own bodies endlessly bleeding within…unhappy, fearful, insecure…No one is making a sound…
The place surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…While shouting out loud “We have never been this free”, and putting writers, translators and journalists behind bars yet life goes on as if everything was normal. While lies feed each other with more lies, liars and yes-men feed off each other murderously. Denying even the smell of death leaking from prison cells, still, more deaths are being called for.
The peninsula surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…the number of people queuing up to turn each other in never ends. The more hatred is carefully fed and made bigger, the more solutions are generated with violence…the violence of hatred and the hatred born out of violence are plunging the spirit of life into a pitch-dark void.
The slippery heaven surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where bloodsucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…while religious extremists obsessed with power are accusing one another, those applauding them are constantly switching sides. Fraud intellectuals, phoney writers, scam businessmen are crossing from one side to the other like a peg-top. Whoever gets to shout louder has their lie spread across the whole world. And sadly, it is always those who do not belong to either side that end up paying the price.
The piece of heaven here on earth surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…while the words of those who can shout out louder, who can buy more, who can be purchased more are suppressing the truth, everyone is turning a blind eye to this. Being closed down, those newspapers and news agencies which once caused innocent people to be sentenced to years in prison with the false evidence they provided are now being proclaimed as the representatives of free press around the world. Without carrying the slightest regret or shame for having destroyed other lives, without engaging in any self-criticism, not even once. As each side becomes more fanatical, truth is drowning further down in a well in which those who choose not to take sides become more and more invisible….Understanding what is happening inside the well is becoming impossible to those outside it. The stories of those who provide the money are marketed as the truth to the world.
The place I once used to live, surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies
The country surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…Those who, until not so long ago, would applaud the government in power today until their palms hurt and blame those who didn’t, for being the enemies of democracy, are today still preaching shamelessly from the same TV channels, from the same papers this time saying “we have been deceived.” Those who, until not so long ago, turned a blind eye to and even from time to time supported what today’s government did to some artists and writers are now expecting support from those whom they had, back then, turned their backs against. Those, who, until not so long ago, said “not enough but yes” (liberals used this slogan during the 2010 referendum) to pretty much all the actions taken by today’s government, and even called their critics fascists are now saying “fascism is coming, can’t you see, why are you keeping quiet?” The climate today is turning into a desert of memoryless miserables in which those, who, not so long ago, hailed the government’s policies on women as freedom are now, interestingly getting frustrated with the child rape law introduced by the same government and are clearing their consciences by saying they had previously been deceived. The hour and minute hand travel in time, but always around the same faces of people who are constantly in self-denial.
The place I once used to live, surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…with every passing day, we are becoming strangers to the places we used to belong, to our past, to our memories and even to ourselves…with every passing day, we are feeling more and more trapped in darkness…most particularly women…if you are a woman…if you have not yet given up on being a woman…
The cage surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies..the sound of seagulls have long since been replaced by religious preachers yelling through speakers. Trees have long since surrendered to concrete walls. The sun is no longer shining in the eyes of the crying children…and lies are growing fast by being fed with more lies…and fears are being ignited by hatred…and people are giving up on themselves more and more with each passing day…and the power of bloodsucking spirits puffs up.
The temple surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…your needs count for nothing and neither do your thoughts. From now on, you are nothing more than a subject that needs to obey…you need to fully understand that you are a subject and you must surrender entirely…you no longer exist as an individual, now there are only those things you have to do and those you have to believe, as determined by the authorities. You will have to bear the brunt of giving up …the more you surrender, the more you will give up on who you are. The more you give up, the more you will be expected to do it…and the more you will give in to hatred.
The stage surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…the more applauded ignorance becomes, the more crowned the lack of knowledge becomes…As opinions get judged , giving in is embraced further. Asking questions has become dangerous now, you must accept the discourse unquestionably. And so you’ll learn to see through the eyes of bloodsuckers, but not your own.
That Sodom surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…rape and abuse have become ordinary acts…a normality. Children are being sent as appetisers for men to lay them on their beds… any sort of perversion can be legitimised as long as one says “I am a believer”. Perverts protect other perverts, perverts determine the laws…As perversion becomes normalised, everywhere is turning to hell for women and children.
That hell surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…people are queuing up to be bloodsucked and the bloodsucked turns into a bloodsucker. And gradually, ruthless vampire stories are coming to life.
That hunting ground surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…none of these bloodsuckers cares about freedom or humanity, but they are yearning to figure out who will suck the most blood and who will rule more…
a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Meltem Arikan is a poet, playwright and author. Her latest play Enough is Enough, about violence against women, will start touring in Wales between Jan-Feb 2017. And her multi award-winning short film Exhibit will continue to be screened various places in Europe. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1485774621131-5d65e5b1-5cf0-4″ taxonomies=”8607″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
06 Dec 16 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Statements, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
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Qiyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mammadov were arrested after spray painting graffiti on a monument to Heydar Aliyev in Baku.
The government of Azerbaijan is carrying out a multi-pronged attack on freedom of expression, including introducing harsh penalties for critical speech online, imprisoning young activists for nothing more than graffiti, blocking access to websites of independent media, and harassing and violating the rights of journalists and activists. The undersigned organisations call upon the Azerbaijani authorities to reverse this alarming trend and respect basic human rights and freedoms, as well as for international partners to ensure Azerbaijan honours its treaty commitments as a state party to the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Earlier this year, two young activists from the N!DA youth movement, Bayram Mammadov and Qiyas Ibrahimov, were arrested after spraypainting graffiti on a monument to Heydar Aliyev in Baku. They were arrested on spurious drug charges and allegedly tortured repeatedly in police custody. Ibrahimov was recently sentenced to ten years imprisonment in what the head of the country’s press freedom watchdog Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety Emin Huseynov rightfully called, “a prime example of travesty of justice in Azerbaijan.”. Mammadov, whose trial is underway, will most likely face the same fate as last Friday the prosecution requested a 10 years and 6 months imprisonment for him.
In Sumqayit, the journalist Ikram Rahimov and a private citizen Rahman Novruzov were sentenced to a year in prison for libel after reporting on bribery and tax evasion by local authorities. In striking similarity to the N!DA case, Rahimov alleges he was tortured for three days by local police after refusing to apologise to the local authorities whose criminal activity he had uncovered. Meanwhile in Jalilabad region, the journalist Afgan Sadigov is set to begin trial for “infliction of a minor harm to heath” after an altercation with a local woman with a history of getting into physical confrontations with citizens who anger regional authorities through dissent or critical reporting. Sadigov faces up to five years in prison.
“The arbitrary persecution of Azerbaijani journalists is disturbing, and it is vital that the state protect its citizens’ rights to expression and freedom from torture and arbitrary detention,” said Robert Hårdh, Director of Civil Rights Defenders, “these cases represent a serious deterioration in the rule of law in the country, and it is vital that steps be taken to remedy the situation.”
Independent journalists who stay out of jail are also having a hard time reaching their audience, as the websites of the local affiliates of RFE/RL and Voice of America have reportedly been blocked .
Finally, on 30 November parliament passed laws criminalising “online defamation or derogation of honor and dignity” of President Ilham Aliyev. Violators face fines up to 1000 AZN (€537) or two years in prison, or 1500 AZN (€805) or a year in prison if they do so using “fake profiles or nicknames.” As online defamation is already criminalised in Azerbaijan, this amounts primarily to another warning that dissent, in any form, will be harshly punished.
‘The new law is a blatant attempt to clamp down on the only remaining space for Azerbaijani people to freely express themselves in a country where traditional media have been silenced via legal means and harassment’, said Gulnara Akhundova, Head of Department at International Media Support.
The undersigned organisations call on the Azerbaijani authorities to cease the politically-motivated prosecution and torture of journalists, to repeal the new laws further criminalising dissent and free speech, to vacate the conviction of Qiyas Ibrahimov and cease the persecution of Bayram Mammadov, and finally the public unfettered access to independent sources of news and opinion. Furthermore, we call on Azerbaijan’s international partners to use their leverage, both bilaterally and through multilateral institutions, to hold Azerbaijan accountable to its international commitments, and the board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to take the aforementioned violations of basic human rights into consideration when deciding on Azerbaijan’s continued membership.
ARTICLE 19
CEE Bankwatch Network
Civil Rights Defenders
European Federation of Journalists
Freedom Now
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
Human Rights House Foundation
Index on Censorship
Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety
International Media Support
International Partnership for Human Rights
MYMEDIA
Netherlands Helsinki Committee
Norwegian Helsinki Committee
PEN America
PEN International
People in Need
Platform
Reporters Without Borders
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1481189397931-57791a34-3950-3″ taxonomies=”7145″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
