Nabeel Yasin
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Nabeel Yasin (born 18 March 1950, in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
) is an Iraqi poet, journalist and political activist.


Biography

Yasin was born in 1950 in the Karradat Merriam district of Baghdad. He studied Arabic Literature at
Baghdad University The University of Baghdad (UOB) ( ar, جامعة بغداد ''Jāmi'at Baghdād'') is the largest university in Iraq, tenth largest in the Arab world, and the largest university in the Arab world outside Egypt. Nomenclature Both 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 Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...
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 Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
, 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 Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
. 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 Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki ( ar, نوري المالكي; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and was the prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and the vice president ...
. 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.FC Unity - The Team
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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

* ''El Bukak ala Meselt el Ahzhan'' (''Crying on the Obelisk of Sorrow''; poetry; 1969) * ''El Shu'araa Yehjoon el Mulook'' (''The Poets Satirise the Kings''; poetry; 1975) * ''El Okhwa Yasin'' (''The Brothers Yasin''; poetry; 1994) * ''Menaha ala Bilad el-Rafidayn'' (''Lamenting Mesopotamia''; poetry; 1996) * ''El Tireekh el Muharam'' (''The Forbidden History''; essay on Arab political thought; 1998) * ''El Shia wel Dowla'' (''The Shi'ites and the State''; 2008)


In popular culture

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.


References


External links


Interviewed on ANN TV 2015 on Iraq, ISIS and Truth and Reconciliation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yasin, Nabeel 20th-century Iraqi poets Iraqi journalists Iraqi politicians Writers from Baghdad 1950 births Living people 21st-century Iraqi poets Iraqi emigrants to Hungary Iraqi children's writers