New Guest Writer arrives in Mexico City

Mohamad Alaaedin Abdul Moula is an award winning writer and poet. Since his first poetry collection, Elegies for the Family of Hearts (1990), he has published more than a dozen books. His latest work was Baghdadi exercises for the nightfall (2009), published by the Ministry of Education in Damascus. In addition to poetry and prose, he has written critical works. Mr. Abdul Moula is a member of the Arabic Writers’ Union in Syria, and details of his work can be found (in Arabic) on Syrian Writer's Union's website.

In 1980 Mr. Abdula Moula was arrested, accused of being active in the Muslim Brotherhood party. Since then he has been under threat, harassed, and on several occasions forbidden to travel outside the country. Considerable pressure has been put on him to write in favour of the Syrian president, and in 1996 he lost his job for refusing to cooperate.

Casa Refugio
When Mr. Abdula Moula came to Mexico City last week he followed in the footsteps of several other Guest Writers who has spent time at Casa Refugio, where ICORN board member Phillipe Ollé-Laprune serves as director. Shakriza Bogatyreva, Hatem Abdulwahid Saleh, Safaa Fathy, Boubacar Boris Diop, Koulsy Lamko, Min Kyaw Khaing, Yasmina Khadra, Xhevdet Bajraj and Vladimir Arsenijevic have all stayed in Mexico City City of Refuge.  

Photo: from www.casarefugio.com