Assad’s Prisons: The Narrative of Resistance in Lived Experience and in Literature
Tue, Mar 22
|Online Event
Jaber Baker introduces us to prison literature in Syria in a rare opportunity to have a closer look at the experience of detention and forced disappearance in this country, itself a huge prison, as represented in literature.
Time & Location
Mar 22, 2022, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM GMT
Online Event
About the Event
In this unique evening, Jaber Baker introduces us to prison literature in Syria in a rare opportunity to have a closer look at the experience of detention and forced disappearance in this country, itself a huge prison, as represented in literature.
You will hear about Jaber’s own novel, 601 The Divine Trials, the first literature work post-Syrian Revolution that addresses political prisons and enters Syrian military hospitals, which have become an essential component of the system of detention and death, gaining them the name ‘the white archipelago’.
Jaber Baker is a novelist, researcher, former political prisoner and human rights activist responsible for the Syrian file at the Center for Media and Cultural Freedom – Samir Kasir Eyes (SKeyes).
Baker has produced several political novels in Arabic, including 601 The Divine Trials and Bab al-Faradis. Baker is also one of the authors of Syrian Gulag: Assad’s Prisons, 1970-2020, the first ever comprehensive study of Syrian political prisons. He has written and prepared a number of documentaries and audio series and has founded the ‘Search for Meaning’ podcast.