Disappeared 3 years ago.. An Iraqi writer was awarded the International Voltaire Prize
Disappeared 3 years ago.. An Iraqi writer was awarded the International Voltaire Prize
Disappeared 3 years ago.. An Iraqi writer was awarded the International Voltaire Prize
The International Publishers Association has awarded the 2023 Voltaire Prize to Iraqi writer and publisher Mazen Latif, who has disappeared in Baghdad in mysterious circumstances since January 2020.
The award was announced at the “Forum of Expression” awards ceremony in Lillehammer, Norway, during which the head of the Freedom of Publication Committee of the International Publishers Association, Christine Einarson, said that Mazen Latif’s commitment to the literary community and freedom of expression in Iraq should be a source of inspiration for all of us.
Abdel-Dominant Mazen Latif, on behalf of his father, gave a speech to accept the award, in which he said that he had never imagined that he would stand one day in such a privileged place to talk about his father, who always filled the air with his conversations about culture and thought.
It is noteworthy that Mazen Latif was born in 1971, and he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the Faculty of Arts from Al-Mustansiriya University. He is the editor-in-chief of “Nahraya” magazine, a magazine concerned with Iraqi memory and heritage. A group kidnapped him at gunpoint in Baghdad on January 31, 2020, and he has not been heard from since.
Al-Kateb is a member of the Iraqi Writers and Writers Union and the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate. He began his writing and publishing career as a student buying and selling books on Al-Mutanabi Street in Baghdad. He established Dar Mesopotamia for printing, publishing and distribution in 2007.
He published a variety of books, some of which focused on ethnic communities and ethnicities in Iraq, and other books concerned with preserving Iraq’s heritage and history.
