Oxfam Novib PEN Awards

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With the PEN Awards, Oxfam Novib and PEN Nederland honour writers, journalists and film makers who, going against the tide and sometimes risking their own lives, search for the truth and spread it. Tom van der Lee, of Oxfam Novib, gives a brief introduction about the significance and the importance of the price. After the award presentation by Dutch human rights ambassador Veer, writers from various parts of the world talk to each other about women's rights and sexuality. Hassnae Bouazza talks to Leila Chudori, who tells about the antiporn legislation in Indonesia, and to Bejan Matur on honour killings in Turkey. Are these practices a result of increasing Islamisation or is there another cause? Can women publish about these things in their home countries? With a final word from Kader Abdolah. In English.
Hassnae Bouazza replaces Naema Tahir, who had to cancel for health reasons.

Information

Date and time Thursday 19 January 2012 from 16:30 to 18:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

Tom van der Lee

(1965) is manager campaigns of Oxfam Novib in The Hague. From 1993 to 2009 he was political coördinator of the Groen Links party in the Dutch House of Commons. He studied political science, and specialized in international relations.
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Lionel Veer

(Arnhem, 1954) has been the Dutch ambassador for Human Rights since 2010. He studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and worked as an assistant research fellow in the deparmtent of cultural philosophy and aesthetics. He has been working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1984. Veer has worked in the policy fields of European affairs, asylum and migration and international cultural policy. In recent years he has been ambassador in Zagreb and consul general in München. The job of human rights ambassador is intended to provide the theme of human rights in international relations with a recognisable, visible and idiosyncratic profile. The human rights ambassador is dedicated to making Dutch human rights policy more coherent.
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Hassnae Bouazza

(Morocco, 1973) is a journalist, columnist, translator, researcher and producer. She publishes in various media (including Dutch national daily newspaper NRC and women's magazine Linda); runs her own online magazine for culture lovers, Aicha Qandisha. She compiled a story collection about Arab women, Achter de sluier (Behind the Veil, 1999); 2013 saw the publication of her book Arabieren kijken (Looking at Arabs), about "ordinary" people in the Arab world. She made TV programs for various broadcasters, including the documentary series Seks en de Zonde (Sex and Sin). Together with Michelin-starred chef Soenil Bahadoer, she wrote the culinary books Spicy Chef (2020) and Streetfood (2022). She published two further books in 2022: Een koffer vol citroenen (A Suitcase Full of Lemons), a requiem for and portrait of her mother, and Arbeidsmigranten in Nederland (Migrant Labourers in the Netherlands).
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Kader Abdolah

(1954, Iran) is the pen name of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani. Since his debut De Adelaars (The Eagles) in 1993 he has navigated between two worlds, the Netherlands and the country of his birth. Abdolah grew up in a harsh, Islamic region. Since he was twelve he read western literature and caught the scent of freedom. While studying physics in Teheran, he joined a secret leftwing party. In 1980 he published two collections of short stories clandestinely under the name Kader Abdolah. In 1988 he fled Iran and ended up in the Netherlands where he has since published a large body of works consisting of novels, short story collections and collected columns, published under the pen name Mirza in de Volkskrant. In Papegaai vloog over de IJssel (Parrot flew over the IJssel, 2014) four migrant families build a new existence in typically Dutch villages along the river; in Salam Europa (2016) the Shah of Persia travels through Europe late in the 19th century, accompanied by a large following of bickering courtiers.
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Bejan Matur

(Turkey, 1968) is of Kurdish descent. In 2011 Dağın Ardına Bakmak (Looking Behind the Mountain) appeared, for which she took to the mountains to interview PKK rebels, the first time a writer sketched the personal stories and traumas of the Kurdish fighters. In 2011 Doğunun Kapısı: Diyarbakır (The Gate of the East: Diyarbakir) also appeared, a portrait of the 3000 year old capital of Kurdistan. As a columnist for the English language newspaper Zaman Matur writes regularly about the Kurdish question. In addition she chairs the Diyarbakır Cultural Art Foundation. She also leads social projects for women, children and adolescents and makes a tv-programme on culture, art and politics. She read law at the University of Ankara. Since the publication of her first book of poetry in 1996, Rüzgâr Dolu Konaklar (Wind-Filled Countryhouses) she has created her own mythology - inspired by age-old Sufi traditions from the region of her birth. Meanwhile she has six books of poetry to her name and an anthology with poems she translated. Her work has been translated in seventeen languages.
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Leila Chudori

(Indonesia, 1962) is one of the most remarkable contemporary Indonesian writers. In her short stories she exposes taboos in her country and stands up for the right to the self-determination of women. Chudori studied political science in Canada. With her stories she gets a dialogue going between tradition and modernity, whereby the macho society and Indonesian chauvinism bears the brunt. Her latest book, 9 dari Nadira, begins with Nadira’s mother's suicide. Nadira dives into her mother's past, she studied in Amsterdam in the 1950s, got married and had children. Her collection of short stories Malam Terakhir of 1989 was translated into German. Leila Chudori has worked as a journalist since 1989, for among others the critical news magazine Tempo. She uses her experiences as a journalist in her short stories. In addition she writes tv and film scripts. Chudori is active on facebook (www.facebook.com/leila.s.chudori) and twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/leilaschudori).
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