PEN Guatemala express solidarity with Sepideh Jodeyri, iranian poet, translator, literary critic and journalist because the recent spike in harassment.

Sepideh Jodeyri is a poet and an Iranian citizen. She discovered ?b>Blue is the warmest color?in Europe and decided to translate it into Persian. This is the only reason why she is being harassed today. In Iran, homosexuality is condemned and can be punishable by the death penalty. Therefore, the Persian version of ?Blue ?was published by a publisher in Paris (link in footer). That could have been all. But the conservative religious media suddenly went wild when a publisher in Teheran recently published the latest collection of poems by Sepideh and made plans to promote its release. All of those who started it hastened to denounce Sepideh for having translated ?Blue ?which they said amounted to ?supporting homosexuality ? At the same time they attacked the local publisher who dared publish the books of such a ?criminal ? without forgetting to call out the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance who had allowed and financed these events with public structures. Sepideh’s media lynching has lasted for several days now, and she no longer has hope to see her books published in her country in the future. Furthermore, her publisher is under serious threat of losing his license. As for the director of the museum where the promotional event for the book of poetry was scheduled to take place - cancelled in the meantime by the government – he has simply been sacked.