Sara Azmeh Rasmussen

Not getting attention from large media for her media criticism, Sara Azmeh Rasmussen decided to abandon the Norwegian public debate for good in 2014. She accused Norwegian media for double standards and hypocrisy and the political and cultural elite for being too passive. In her last article in Norwegian language, she described her feelings of disappointment when discovering that she had been a part of circus show, not a genuine democratic public debate. [30] [31]

In 2013, Sara Azmeh Rasmussen placed the conditions for freelancers and cultural workers on the agenda in the Norwegian public. She warned of the consequences of concentration trends with few owners controlling the media system. Major cuts in the newspapers editorial sections have taken place to guarantee gain for shareholders.

In 2012 Sara Azmeh Rasmussen got Free Speech Price, Fritt Ord Award, also known as the Little Nobel Prize in Norway. At the awards ceremony the head of the Free Speech board, George Rieber Mohn, highlighted the winner's important and constructive role in the public debate in Norway. He stressed that she has strict requirements to be consistent, logical and rational in her public contributions. [24]

She used herself as an example. She could not afford living by working as a freelancer and was therefore obliged to leave the public debate. She warned that the media and cultural institutions risk losing valuable human resources. She refused also to pay her tax for 2012 unless the politicians put the conditions for freelancers on the agenda [25]

On 29 January 2011 she started a one-woman protest outside the building of the Norwegian Islamic Council, an umbrella organization for Muslim communities, and demanded a clear condemnation on the death penalty for homosexuality. [15]

The fight for Muslim gay and transgender people's right to life brought Azmeh Rasmussen to Dublin summer 2011. [20]

Sara Azmeh Rasmussen became well known in Norway when she, on International Women's Day 2009, set fire to a veil. The campaign gained international attention and coverage. The day before, the newspaper Aftenposten published her article "Spread your wings," an open letter to the Muslim woman. During the symbolic action Azmeh Rasmussen was bombarded with snowballs. She held though an appeal under the title "The age of dreams is not over." Soon after burning the Islamic veil, she received death threats and hate E-mails. [13] [14]

Sara Azmeh Rasmussen has lived in Stockholm since 2008.

Sara Azmeh Rasmussen has been involved in the debate around freedom of expression since the controversy in 2006. She participated in a debate that was arranged of Norwegian Cartoonists together with the editor of the Danish Newspaper, Jyllandsposten, Flemming Rose. Her view was that the Norwegian government's apology to Islamic officials was a short-term solution that is highly problematic. [4]

Sara Azmeh Rasmussen is a Syrian-Norwegian author, freelance writer, lecturer and human rights activist. She was born in 1973 and grew up in Damascus, Syria, in a Sunni Muslim family with deep roots in the capital. In 1995 she immigrated alone to Norway, and in 1997 she was granted political asylum. In her first book, the autobiographical novel, Skyggeferden (The journey of a shadow, ebook: ISBN 9788282820233), she describes the deep impact of such a cultural journey. [1]