Marylhurst Messenger
December, 2008

By Jonnie Martin

When I first enrolled in the Marylhurst Human Rights Advocacy class this quarter, I hardly considered myself an activist.  Just curious, like most of the students.  Susan Heinrich and I are ELW seniors.  Kathy Stanley is an Interdisciplinary senior, with at least some interest in geo-political matters.  Another ELW student, John Hart, is a  filmmaker and our only experienced activist.  All of us are writers.  Now, two months later, all of us are activists.

The class is designed to introduce students to the plight of international writers who face political persecution around the world.  Each of us was assigned a writer from the files of PEN International, and over the following weeks we researched the country, the case and the writer; prepared an extensive dossier; and created an advocacy campaign.

It was far from the usual remote, academic experience.  We became emotionally allied with our writer and understood that their fight — and thus our fight — was intimately bound to the hallowed principles of human rights and freedom of the press.  In a special presentation at the Shoen Library December 10th, at 7:30 pm,  we have the opportunity of sharing our experience with other Marylhurst students, faculty and the community.

Each of us had a unique experience in this class.  Since I am writing a novel about migrant workers in the food industry, the study of Mexican journalists led me into a deeper understanding of this conflicted country.  My advocacy involved not only my subject —26 year old crime reporter Alfredo Jiménez Mota who disappeared in 2005 after publishing articles on drug traffickers in a Hermosillo, Sonora, newspaper—but all of the journalists who have been tortured, kidnapped or assassinated in the last five years.

Kathy researched Nurmuhemmet Yasin, a well-known writer from China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison when Chinese authorities held one of his short stories to be anti-governmental.  The Human Rights in China group believe Yasin is still alive and are featuring him on their December website.  Kathy’s research also led her to discover less-reported issues involving the Uighur region, including the detention of seventeen of their people by the U.S. at Guantanamo.

Susan has worked with a sense of urgency since her subject, Leonard Peltier, has a crucial parole hearing some time this month.  Peltier participated in the American Indian Movement back in the seventies, a tragic period in the U.S. that saw many black and native activists assassinated or imprisoned.  The story of Peltier’s conviction for a murder he did not commit is showcased in a movie produced by Robert Redford, “Incident at Oglala,” and on several websites, one of which published Susan’s advocacy campaign.


John researched Yassin Aref , a United Nations refugee to the U.S. trapped in a much-criticized FBI sting operation in Albany, New York, as a result of the Bush administration’s frenetic hunt for “terrorists.”  In an ironic twist, Aref has written a book about his early life in Kurdistan, where his people were routinely persecuted by Saddam Hussein.  After becoming very involved with Aref’s supporters, John has created a website to plead his innocence to the public at large (www.YassinAref.net).

Our class is taught by Portland writer Martha Gies, an instructor at Marylhurst since 1990.  Martha, who publishes both fiction and nonfiction, brings her experience as a social activist to the plight of these silenced writers.

“This class gives a uniquely global perspective on the process and perils of the writing life,” Martha said.  In developing the class, Martha worked with International PEN, a professional writers’ organization that has monitored freedom of expression since 1921.

Our final presentation is scheduled to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the signing of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” by the U.N.  Fellow students, faculty and the community at large are welcome to join us in the Shoen Library at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 10.  We will also provide an advocacy table, where attendees are invited to sign advocacy letters on behalf of our writers.  It is one more way that we can say “no to torture” and “yes to free speech.”