Nabeel Yasin

Last updated

Nabeel Yasin (born 18 March 1950, in Baghdad) is an Iraqi poet, journalist and political activist. [1]

Contents

Biography

Yasin was born in 1950 in the Karradat Merriam district of Baghdad. He studied Arabic Literature at Baghdad University, graduating in 1971. He wrote poetry from an early age and took part in poetry festivals at the university, as well as in national festivals in Basra and Nineveh.

Yasin began his career in journalism in 1966, and worked for national newspapers such as al-Thuwra and al-Jumhuria. He was also editor of the children’s weekly Mejelitee-wal-Mismar and the magazine Alif-Ba. In 1976, under pressure from the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein, Yasin was forced to give up his official journalistic posts, although he continued to write for an opposition paper until 1979 when the regime cracked down harder. In January 1980, fearing for his life, he left Iraq with his wife and child, arriving in Hungary.

Yasin completed his PhD in philosophy at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1987. Both in Hungary and later in the UK, he was a prominent figure in the Iraqi opposition movement in exile, appearing often in print and electronic media. The Saddam regime was toppled by the American invasion in early 2003. Yasin returned to Iraq for the first time in 2007, after spending 27 years in exile.

Prior to the parliamentary elections in March 2010, Yasin set up a secular political party called Justice & Freedom: Renew Iraq. He ran unsuccessfully for the position of prime minister, which was eventually retained by Nouri al-Maliki. [2]

More recently, Nabeel and his eldest son Yamam Nabeel have been running a non-profit organization called FC Unity which aims to further development and education through football matches and tournaments. FC Unity have so far held events in Iraq, England, Ghana and Sudan. [3]

Poetry

Yasin published his first book of poetry in 1969. The Saddam regime prevented the publication of his second book for two years, eventually allowing it to appear in censored form in 1975. His poems written in exile - for example, his best known work The Brothers Yasin - was banned in Iraq and circulated in Baghdad's literary underground via photocopies. His poetry has been translated into a number of languages, including English, French, Italian and Hungarian.

Selected works

In 2006, the British writer Jo Tatchell published a book-length account of Yasin's life under the title Nabeel's Song (U.S. edition: The Poet of Baghdad). The book was nominated for the Costa Biography Award, the Index on Censorship Award, and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.

A documentary on Yasin entitled The Poet of Baghdad was filmed by director Georgie Weedon and broadcast on Al Jazeera English in 2009.

Personal life

Yasin is married to Nada, and has two sons Yamam and Hanin.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saddam Hussein</span> President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adnan Pachachi</span> Iraqi politician and statesman (1923–2019)

Adnan al-Pachachi or Adnan Muzahim Ameen al-Pachachi was a veteran Iraqi and Emirati politician and diplomat. Pachachi was Iraq's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1959 to 1965 and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq from 1965 to 1967, during the Six-Day War with Israel; he again served as Permanent Representative to the UN from 1967 to 1969. After 1971, he left Iraq in exile and became an Emirati Minister of State and political advisor to United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Pachachi was an important figure in Iraqi politics, often described as Iraq's elder statesman. He rejected the role of president in the Iraqi Interim Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Failed Iraqi peace initiatives</span>

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, evidence began to emerge of failed attempts by the Iraqi government to bring the conflict to a peaceful resolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati</span> Iraqi poet (1926–1999)

Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati was an Iraqi Arab poet.

Kanan Makiya is an Iraqi-American academic and professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University. He gained international attention with Republic of Fear (1989), which became a best-selling book after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and with Cruelty and Silence (1991), a critique of the Arab intelligentsia. In 2003, Makiya lobbied the U.S. government to invade Iraq and oust Hussein.

Nabīl or Nabeel is a male given name of Arabic origin, meaning "noble". The feminine version is Nabila, Nabeela, Nabilah, Nabeela or Nabeelah. The name Nabil has a similar meaning to the English given name Patrick.

The cinema of Iraq went through a downturn under Saddam Hussein's regime. The development of film and film-going in Iraq reflects the drastic historical shifts that Iraq has experienced in the 20th century. The Iraq War which began in 2003 had an influence on many films being produced.

Nabeel's Song is the memoir of the respected Iraqi poet Nabeel Yasin and his extended family. It was written by United Kingdom journalist Jo Tatchell and published in the UK in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fadhil Al Azzawi</span> Iraqi poet and novelist

Fadhil Al Azzawi is an Iraqi writer highly respected in the Arab world, as he has published ten volumes of poetry, six novels, three books of criticism and memoir, and several translations of German literary works. He participated in Iraq's avant-garde Sixties Generation, and his early controversial work was lauded with great enthusiasm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Bader</span> Iraqi Belgian writer

Ali Bader is an Iraqi novelist, poet, poetry translator, script writer, critic, regarded as the most significant writer to emerge in Arabic world, in the last decade. author of eighteen works of fiction, and several works of non-fiction. His best-known works include Papa Sartre, The Tobacco Keeper, The Running after the Wolves, and The Sinful Woman, several of which have won awards. His novels are quite unlike any other fictions in Arabic world of our day, as they blend character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, and explicit language. Bader was born in Baghdad, where he studied western philosophy and French literature. He now lives in Brussels. In addition to his work as an author, he is also journalist. He is working as Editor-in-Chief of Eurolitkrant an interdisciplinary and literary journal. https://eurolitkrant.com/IndexEn.aspx.

Adnan al-Sayegh, "is one of the most original voices from the generation of Iraqi poets known as the Eighties Movement. His poetry, crafted with elegance, and sharp as an arrowhead, carries an intense passion for freedom love and beauty. Adnan uses his words as a weapon to denounce the devastation of war and the horrors of dictatorship."

<i>Clash of Loyalties</i> 1983 Iraqi film by Mohamed Shukri Jameel

Clash of Loyalties is a 1983 Iraqi film focusing on the formation of Iraq out of Mesopotamia in the aftermath of the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firdos Square statue destruction</span> Toppling of a large statue of Saddam Hussein in 2003

On April 9, 2003, during the US invasion of Iraq, a large statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square was destroyed by Iraqi civilians and United States Marines. The event received global media coverage, wherein it came to symbolize the end of Hussein's rule in Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maruf al Rusafi</span>

Ma'ruf bin Abdul Ghani al Rusafi (1875–1945) was a poet, educationist and literary scholar from Iraq. He is considered by many as a controversial figure in modern Iraqi literature due to his advocacy of freedom and opposition to imperialism and is known as a poet of freedom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faiq Al Sheikh Ali</span> Iraqi politician

Faiq Al Sheikh Ali is an Iraqi lawyer and politician who served as a Member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq From 2014 and is the Secretary-General of the People's Party for Reform. In parliament, he was a member of the Judiciary (Legal) Committee. He led the Civilized Alliance for the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary election. He boycotted the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary election. after the suspension of his immunity by the Iraqi Parliament in 2019.

Hussain Hindawi is an author, poet, editor, former UN Senior political Advisor in Iraq and editor in chief of the Arabic Services of the United Press International (UPI). He is best known for being the first chairman of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), organizing the first elections in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amal al-Jubouri</span>

Amal Al-Jubouri is an Iraqi writer, poet, translator, journalist and publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rashid Yassin</span> Iraqi journalist and poet

Rashid Yassin Abbas Al-Rabaie was an Iraqi journalist, poet, literary critic and university professor. He was born in Baghdad under Mandatory Iraq where he completed his primary and secondary education. He then pursued a bachelor's degree in theatre science at Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Bulgaria, and later obtained a postgraduate degree in philosophy and aesthetics from Sofia University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazim al-Samawi</span> Iraqi poet and journalist (1925–2010)

Kazim Jasir Faraj, better known as Kazim al-Samawi, was an Iraqi poet and journalist known for his humanist worldview. From the 1950s, he spent more than half of his life in exile as a political refuge and was known by title "The Elder of the Iraqi exiles" or "The Shaykh of Exiles". He moved between many countries, such as Lebanon, Hungary, Germany, China, Syria and Cyprus until he finally settled in Sweden. Al-Samawi published his first poetry collection in 1950 and was as a result was persecuted by the Nuri al-Said government. Later, he and his family faced persecution in Ba'athist Iraq, and he experienced the death of almost all his family members, often in quick succession. Through his poetry in various forms, genres and metres, he was very involved in general human affairs. His family name is derived from his hometown demonym, Samawah. He studied in Baghdad and graduated from the Rural Teachers’ House in 1940, continued his higher studies in Hungary and graduated from the Faculty of Arts in 1956. He worked for a while in journalism in Baghdad with a progressive tendency, founded The Humanity in 1956, a twice-weekly leftist newspaper. He left about seven poetry collections that have been translated into several languages. Al-Samawi died at the age of 85 in Stockholm and was buried in Sulaymaniyah.

References