A group of Iranian poets and artists based in Sweden gathered in front of the Iranian embassy in Stockholm along with some of their Swedish peers to protest the arrest of Iranian poets Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mousavi.
Swedish television aired a report on the demonstration on Monday January 13.
The gathering was organized by PEN Sweden, the Gutenberg International Poetry Festival and the Swedish Writers Union.
The demonstrators called for the immediate release of the two young poets. In a statement they noted Fatemeh Ekhtesari’s collaboration with the Gutenberg International Poetry Festival.
Mehdi Mousavi and Fatemeh Ekhtesari disappeared after they were summoned to court. In his last entry on his Facebook account, Mousavi was quoted as saying that they were banned from travel and their passports had been confiscated.
No reason has been given for a travel ban.
The Kaleme opposition website has reported that Ekhtesari and Mousavi have been arrested by the Revolutionary Guards without any official statements about their si
