Why Jail a Poet?

So, why is Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, a well regarded Qatari poet still in prison? In a country that claims that it wants to protect and promote human rights? To embrace the arts? To stay on a course with Westernized modernization? Why such severe political action against a poet? I keep asking myself. I read the poem again, his letter to the prime minister of Tunisia. Deep. Penetrating. Moving. It seems relatively tame in comparison with what could’ve been said. Language is an evolving experience.  His words are not written to trigger violence. He is asking for us all to think about the longing for freedom. Compassionately. Collectively.

I reread it aloud. I hear his questions. I hear the injustice. A telling that addresses what others can’t. Others won’t.  To be categorized as a dangerous “leader?” Believing him to be a threat: does that make him a threat? Does such a reaction only confirm their guilt? The fear of words? An example to be set? Squashing dissent? Silencing what has and is occurring? Isn’t he just elaborating on the Bedouin spirit of Nabati poetry, voicing commentary on current & social conditions? Or is he being punished for some other hidden  reasons? What am I overlooking?

A country with extreme gaps between rich and poor that exploits and abuses migrant workers, that bans demonstrations, political parties and unions, that drops billions to be a player in the global art market, that has a self-censoring media and its own brand of  diplomatic maneuvering. Are they really protecting state interests? Public morals?  The ruling dynasty? US-British air bases? Oil reserves? Foreign investments? Article 46 of the 1979 Qatari Prints and Publications Law says that the Emir “shall not be criticized and that no statement can be attributed to him unless under written permission from the manager of his office.”  He didn’t follow directions? Al-Ajami has said that he had never intended to “insult” the Emir, whom he felt was “a good man.”

And what about the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights? “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression… to hold opinions without interference.” Pressure. More pressure. The U.S. could do more than be “obviously concerned.” Change does exist. Will U.N. officials continue to speak out on his behalf? Any decision can be reconsidered.  The new emir should step forward with an unconditional pardon. Barriers have to be broken.

Summoned by state security forces in Doha in 2011, al-Ajami was questioned about two of his poems. Although he’d been reassured beforehand by one of the Emir’s sons, who was a friend of his, that there was no need to worry as this would only be a routine registration. Al-Ajami was instead arrested and charged with publicly “inciting the overthrow of the ruling regime” (punishable by death) and “challenging the authority of the Emir” (a 5 year sentence).  Poetry “experts” from the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage confirmed the “accuracy” of these accusations.

Held for almost a year in solitary confinement, Al-Ajami, now 42, a married father of four, was given life in prison by Qatar’s Criminal Court in 2012 after a quick secret trial marred with numerous due process violations, one of which being that he’d been forced under interrogation to sign a false statement declaring that he’d recited The Cairo Poem in a “public place in the presence of the press.” But it is believed that Tunisian Jasmine (The Tunisian Revolution Poem) was the real motive behind these charges. Al-Ajami was not allowed to be present at his own trial and heard about the verdict from another inmate.

International human rights organizations immediately went into action with global protests and petition signings that called for Al-Ajami, whom they consider a prisoner of conscience for exercising his right to freedom of expression, to be immediately released. They urge that his conviction and sentence be quashed.  On appeal, Al-Ajami’s prison term was reduced to 15 years. Qatar’s Supreme Court has since upheld that decision.

In a September 6, 2012 letter, Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch’s Deputy Director, Middle East and North Africa Division, wrote to Qatar’s Attorney General Al-Marri concerning the detention of Mohammed Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami:

The supposed crimes of al-Ajami first took place while he was a student of Arabic literature at Cairo University during a small gathering of about seven people in his apartment in 2010, where he and another poet were exchanging verse, challenging each other in the style of Nabati poetry’s riddiyyih (poetic duel) in rounds of call & response. Al-Ajami was unaware that an audio recording was being made and that The Cairo Poem would be later posted online.

Then in 2011, Tunisian Jasmine, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia & Egypt, was likewise recorded and circulated widely via social media, sparking the regime’s attention. The poem seems to have been interpreted by officials as a call for revolution in Qatar while the Arab Spring was intensifying across the region. Qatar was not on the list of countries being affected by demonstrations, riots, oustings of leaders or overthrowings of governments.  It was however a time of crackdowns and clampdowns, and it seems that the poet must have been pinned as an easy target. His lawyer has consistently stated that al-Ajami had not consented to the distribution of these poems on the internet and that he had never read them in public. This affirms that there’s no support for the charges against him and that no law had actually been violated. 

The work of al-Ajami, as well as that of many other poets in the Arab world, is rooted in the pre-Islamic Classical Arabic poetry known as Nabati, a vehicle of lyrical discourse through which tribal poets, desert warriors, marauders and nomadic chiefs could describe the migration of herds, shifting alliances, unfulfilled affection, feuds, threats, battles or grievances.

One initiative pursued to revive and popularize this Bedouin form of poetry has been the commercial television show Million’s Poet, which has become the most highly rated broadcast on the UAE’s Abu Dhabi TV network. Contestants in traditional dress take turns delivering poems in vernacular dialects. In its seventh season, Million’s Poet is showcasing forty-eight poets from 14 countries who are competing for an over four million dollar prize. The objective still remains to match each other in imaginative deliveries in the historically established genres of praise, satire, love, elegy, boasting and advice.

On February 25, 2016, the third anniversary of Ibn Al-Dheeb’s imprisonment, Amnesty International, PEN International, Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Americans for Democracy, English PEN, Freedom Now, and Split This Rock delivered petitions to the Qatari embassies in Washington, D.C. and London, U.K.