Baamdaad, in Persian, means “Dawn” -- the exact moment when the darkness of the night is ending, and morning begins.
After they came to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed many restrictions on the lives of the Afghan people. One of their most recent decrees imposes a ban on poetry and even writing poems by Afghanis. Before this, artistic activities such as music and theatre have already been banned.
The goal of Baamdaad is to fight this dogmatic, dark, and primitive thinking behind the censorship of and prohibition on art and poetry. Baamdaad believes in the power of words intertwined and hidden in the form of poetry. Poetry can remind the world to not forget about Afghanistan. Poetry can also empower people to keep fighting for justice and freedom.
Baamdaad – The House of Poetry in Exile is an independent initiative, unaffiliated with any political movement outside or inside Afghanistan. Its aim is to create and channel solidarity among poets of the world against the repression of art, and to encourage poetic resistance -- resistance by poetry.
This is what we are doing:
• Collecting poems of poets who live in Afghanistan. We have called on all Afghani poets whose work can’t be published inside their country to send it to Baamdaad.
• Striving to find opportunities to publish Afghan poets, in print and/or on-line.
• Striving to translate and send these poems to international poetry societies and events.
• Striving to build solidarity among the world poets against censorship and suppression of art and poetry in Afghanistan.
In our call, we are asking poets of the world to write a poem in support the Afghan poets living in an environment of total censorship and freedom of expression.
Baamdaad is an artistic movement as well as a protesting initiative that endeavors for the freedom of art.
Baamdaad strives to create opportunities for publishing and spreading banned poetry and to create a space for dialogue among poets around the world.
Baamdaad does not belong to a specific group of poets. All poets who believe in the freedom of art can join.
Every poet who lives in exile can joins us; we will strengthen banned voices by publishing and distributing their work.
We wish to create a poetic dialogue and generate solidarity in our fight against the repression and censorship--in Afghanistan and around the world.
Baammaad welcomes every idea, opinion, and kind of support to expand and continue this movement.