Des de 1922, defensem la llibertat d'expressió i els drets lingüístics, salvaguardem el patrimoni literari català i promovem el diàleg intercultural.
Since 2006, PEN Català has coordinated the Writers In Refuge Programme. This programme, with its roots in the Shelter Cities programme which was promoted by the International Parliament of Writers, aims to host a writer who is threatened, persecuted or at risk of being imprisoned as a consequence of their writing.
PEN Català promotes literary translation to overcome the linguistic barrier that prevents understanding between people and cultures. It works for both the promotion of Catalan literature in the world and to support the translation of universal literary works into Catalan. It is within this framework that the digital magazine Visat is published.
PEN is committed to the respect of all languages, and the protection and promotion of minority languages. PEN's central and guiding principles on linguistic rights are laid out in the Girona Manifesto, promoted by PEN Català.
PEN Català monitors human rights violations against writers, editors, translators and journalists around the world and organises campaigns to support them.
You can become a full member if you are a writer in any field, journalist, editor or translator and share the founding values of PEN.
If you are not a writer and want to join the defense of languages and freedom of expression, you can be part of the Circle of Friends of PEN.
Help us continue to defend language and freedom of expression.
Sí! El nostre web s'adapta a dispositius mòbils, però encara està en desenvolupament. Per veure-la ara correctament, consulta-la des d'una mida de pantalla major de 1100px ; )
Ciutat de procedència: Tunisia
Ciutat d'acollida: Barcelona
Període d'acollida: 2010-2011
Obres destacades:
Lettre à une amie iraquienne, L’Europe et ses despotes
Sihem Bensedrine is a high profiled Tunisian journalist and human rights activist. She was prevented from working in her own country because of her fight for human rights and free speech. She faced long term persecution and reprisals against herself and her family.
A graduate of philosophy of the University of Toulouse (France), Sihem Bensedrine has been engaged in the fight for human rights in Tunisia since 1980. As a journalist, she made her debut in the independent press in Tunesia, which prospered in the 1980s. This was the beginning of a fight for press freedom. This struggle also extended to the feminist sphere where she was at the origin of the birth of a women’s club, Club Tahar Haddad, and of Nissa, a feminist magazine.
Bensedrine is now editor in chief of the online magazine Ka¬lima and Radio Kalima (web and satellite radio). Through her leadership, Kalima broadcasted the initial reports of protests in Tunisia at the outset of the Arab Spring. Kalima was denied registration after five attempts to register.
Bensedrine resided as guest writer in Barcelona City of Refuge from 2010 to 2011. In the beginning of 2011, after the Tunisian revolution, Bensedrine was able to return home. In August 2011 she received the Human Rights Watch Award “Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism”.
At the end of the 1970s, Bensedrine was among the founding members of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), part of the award-winning “National Dialogue Quartet” that was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015. When she returned from exile to her home country on 14 January 2011, the day of the dictator’s escape, she immediately resumed her work within the LTDH. In 2015, Sihem Bensedrine became head of Tunisia’s truth and dignity commission, investigating crimes of the pre-revolutionary regime in Tunesia.