Interview with Marianna Fox, director of the Passion for Freedom festival and curators Barbara Leszczynska and Katka Kowalska. WP.PL

We meet at the side of the River Thames and through a big window I can see Tate Modern Gallery.  The sunny café is just next door to the gallery where Passion for Freedom festival took place.

There are three girls drinking coffee at the table, the same ones who recently made a lot of noise in London about art and freedom. In Poland not so many people know what they do nor why. [ Read more ]

Why can’t we admit we’re scared of Islamism?

“Let’s face it — we only challenge religions that won’t hurt us, and governments that won’t arrest us” by Nick Cohen – The Spectator

Firoozeh Bazrafkan is frightened of nothing. Five foot tall, 31 years old, and so thin you think a puff of wind could blow her away, she still has the courage to be a truly radical artist and challenge those who might hurt her. She fights for women’s rights and intellectual freedom, and her background means her fight has to be directed against radical Islam. As a Danish citizen, she saw journalists go into hiding and mobs attack her country’s embassies just because Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of Muhammad that were so tame you could hardly call them ‘satirical’. Bazrafkan is also the daughter of an Iranian family, and the Islamic Republic’s subjugation of women revolts her.

[ Read more ]