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The Cities of
Asylum
Following an initiative of Salman Rushdie, The International Parliament
of
Writers (IPW) in 1994 established an international network of cities of
asylum
for persecuted writers. In 1995, the Norwegian city of Stavanger
declared
itself a city of asylum. Stavanger was joined by Kristiansand in
1999
and by Oslo in 2001. More than 20 cities in Europe and several in
Latin-America
are now members of the network.
The following writers are or have been guests in the Norwegian cities
of asylum since 1995:
STAVANGER
Araz Elses (Aserbaijan)
Mansur Rajih (Yemen)
Mansour Koushan (Iran)
Islam Elsanov (Chechnya)
Chenjeraj Hove (Zimbabwe)
KRISTIANSAND
Iyad Ibrahim Rikabi (Irak)
Carlos Sherman (Belarus)
OSLO
Soudabeh Alishahi (Iran)
Aziz Sangtarash (Iran)
TRONDHEIM
Musa Mutaev (Chechnya)
TROMSØ
Easterine Iralu (Nagaland/India)
MOLDE
Gilles
Dossou-Gouin (Benin)
The cities in the network are obligated to host a persecuted writer and
his
family, supplying free housing and an adequate remuneration to cover
costs
of living for a period of one to two years. From 2001 the
Norwegian
state through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs covers NOK 100.000 (about
USD
13.000 based on current rate, april 2003) for each writer every
year.
Norwegian PEN is responsible for the administration of this subsidy and
also
serves as consultant to the Ministry, the cities and the writers and
facilitates
contact between the Ministry and the cities. Presently, several
other
Norwegian cities are contemplating joining the network. Norwegian PEN
is
also the official organization nominating writers to the IPW when a
Norwegian
city is ready to host a new writer.
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