Mansur Rajih

Mansur Rajih (b 1958, Yemen) is an author and came to Norway in 1998 as a part of the International Cities of Refuge Network (Icorn) programme.

He was president of the Yemeni Students Union and a prominent member of the National Democratic Front, the country’s most important opposition party. Rajih was arrested in 1983 by the national security forces and imprisoned for 15 years on a false murder charge. He was freed after a lengthy international campaign. His poems were smuggled out of prison and printed in newspapers throughout the Arab world.

Rajih has published several volumes of poetry in Norway, including Horoskop: fengsel, translated by Tor Obrestad and Min Brors smerte, translated by Maria Aano Reme.