Dear Somaia Ramish
Today our book, NO JAIL CAN CONFINE YOUR POEM, was featured in the Hokkaido Shimbun.
Hokkaido Shimbun is the largest newspaper in Hokkaido and is read throughout Japan.
It is read not only in Hokkaido but also all over Japan.
This article was published in the evening edition, but the evening edition also has a circulation of over 230,000.
It was featured prominently in its culture section.
It also wrote about Somaia Ramish's poetry and about BaamDaad.
I am very happy. I will report the article.
Nozomu Shibata
Japan
*****
Hokkaido Shimbun (evening newspaper) August 21, 2023
Protest against the Taliban's ban on poetry
Japanese edition of "NO JAIL CAN CONFINE YOUR POEM" published.
Edited by Asahikawa poets, 24th event
*****
The Japanese edition of "NO JAIL CAN CONFINE YOUR POEM" was published on August 15, edited by poets from Asahikawa, Japan, in protest against the ban on poetry by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
After seizing power by overrunning the capital Kabul in 2021, the Taliban has intensified its suppression of girls' education and the arts.
Somaia Ramish, a poet who defected from Afghanistan to the Netherlands and founded BaamDaad (House of Exiled Poets), called for poems to be sent to express protest against the ban. Poems were then sent from Japan and other countries.
Nozomu Shibata, a poet who is the Japanese contact for BaamDaad and who runs the Asahikawa poetry magazine "Fragile," and others edited the collection.
The publication of the book was made possible by the cooperation of people from all over Japan, including Atsushi Ando, professor emeritus at Hokkaido University, who translated the poems.
The book opens with a preface by Somaia Ramish and a poem. Free people of the world,you who have embodied liberty in a statue," the poems appeal.
The book is scheduled to be published in France in November.
The publication in Japan was reported in the Persian-language BBC and the UK Independent newspaper.
Nozomu Shibata is grateful for the cooperation of many people. Shibata said, "There was a time when poetry could not be written freely in Japan because of censorship until a few decades ago. I want people to have the imagination that Afghanistan is no stranger to Japan.
The 156-page book will be sold at large bookstores in Asahikawa, at the Yoshinari Bookshop in Sapporo, and through mail order. The event will be held at Machinaka Bunka Hut in Asahikawa (7jo 7-chome, Asahikawa) on Thursday, March 24 at 3:00 pm.
Somaia Ramish's video message will be shown and the process of publication will be introduced. Admission 500 yen.
For inquiries about the book or the event, please contact Nozomu Shibata at 090-3396-6685.
（This is an article by akira yanai.）
