A discussion based on the book “Suspended lives: letters to the world from Ritsona” by Parwana Amiri

A discussion based on the book Suspended lives: letters to the world from Ritsona by Parwana Amiri (in Greek, Akivernites Polities, 2021)

Parwana Amiri and Raia Lignou

Summary

Parwana Amiri and Raia Lignou, having as a reference the book title mentioned above, are discussing about the Ritsona Refugee Camp in central Greece. Through a multimedia dialogue they focus on the conditions of isolation (the camp is 18 km far from the nearest city), on the walls that surround the camp and on the exclusion of students who live in the camp from the Greek public educational system. They also discuss what it means to be a young refugee girl living in the camp who at the same time tries to talk about all these oppressions and attempts to make her voice heard.

BIO

Parwana Amiri is a human rights activist for refugees, poet and author of The olive tree and the old woman: A conversation in the olive grove of Moria hotspot (w2eu, 2019), My pen won’t break, but borders will: Letters to the world from Moria (in Greek, Akivernites Polities, 2020) and Suspended lives: Letters to the world from Ritsona (in Greek, Akivernites Polities, 2021).

Raia Lignou has studied in the field of health sciences and has also graduated from the Department of Social Anthropology at Panteion University. Currently, she is a postgraduate student in “Education and Human Rights” at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her research interests include topics related with disability, gender, education, and human rights.