Dareen Tatour, A Poet Who Struggle for Palestinian Women Prisoners

By: Ali Farkhan Tsani, Senior Editor of MINA News Agency

Former Palestinian female prisoner, Dareen Tatour (39 years old), released her first book in English in July 2021. The book tells the story of the suffering of Palestinian female prisoners while in occupation prisons.

According to Wikipedia sources, Dareen Tatour, born in Reineh, occupied Israel, April 16, 1982, is a Palestinian poet, photographer and social media activist.

She was sentenced to five months in prison by an Israeli court in 2018 on charges of “inciting violence” and “supporting resistance organizations” in posts on social media, one of which was a video that included a reading of his poetry.

The book is a memoir documenting everything he went through from his arrest to his imprisonment.

“This is a book that documents the stages in the occupation prison,” she said, as released by local media Nisaa Min Ajli Fislisteen.

Resistance Poetry

Dareen Tatour once released a poem on YouTube and Facebook entitled Qawim Ya Sya’abi Qawimahum (Fight my people, fight them).

According to her, her goal is to write books and write poetry because it is still rare for Palestinian women to write about what happens to them behind bars.

“Aisha Odeh seems to be the only released Palestinian prisoner to write about her story. This is what prompted me to document my experiences for me to share with the world,” she said.

As for the choice of English, to expose the treatment of the occupation to the international world through the symbol of freedom of expression.

“I want to serve the people and the Palestinian cause in this regard. I want to refute everything promoted by the Zionist media and the occupation media, which is far from the truth,” she said.

Asked by the media about the obstacles in publishing his book, namely the strong opposition from the occupation which tried to prevent the publication of his book.

She wrote the book for three years, and immediately began looking for a translator for the book into English. She is also trying to find publishers who are interested in publishing his book.

But she was hampered, because some of the publishers he visited did not support him. Didn’t even respond to his request.

Maybe because it contained resistance, and I was imprisoned for my writing. He said, “So maybe that is the reason why institutions and publishers are not interested in adopting my books, both in Arabic and in English.”

In fact, when she was arrested by the Israeli occupation, she had the support of the anti-Zionist United States organization, Jewish Voice for Peace.

Finally, she searched for publishers outside Palestine through social media channels. Until finally she got an Arab publisher outside Palestine, namely Daar Diyaar in Tunisia. The translator of his book is his fellow activist in arms, Terry Arafat.

After her book was published and shared online via social media, he received an invitation to study and work for two years in Sweden by the international pen organization and ICORN.

Afters she arrived in Sweden he became more and more active in writing about Palestine. She lived in Sweden for four years.

Her writings, including her poems, which he relied on his life experiences, received a response from Drunk Muse Press, Scotland, run by Neil Young, one of the poets in Europe.

Neil Young later expressed interest in publishing his writings, including novels.

Voice of Truth

Through the publisher Drunk Muse Press in Scotland his books were published and then distributed online.

According to distribution data, book orders come from various countries, such as: Scotland, Sweden, Norway, England, the United States, China, Thailand, Africa, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Lebanon.

“No power can silence the voice of truth. I said it once and I repeated it with evidence,” she said, happy with his book spread all over the world.

“All we need is perseverance and not giving up on circumstances,” the principle of Dareen Tatour, whose poetry works on her social media accounts, was seen by more than 200,000 netizens.

There it is, Dareem Tatour, who has fought back through writing. For her, prison is not a place to limit his work. Precisely from behind bars, she found the inspiration of resistance for the freedom of the prisoners and their nation, Palestine. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)