Tomorrow is the International Day to Defend Apostates and Blasphemers. On 14 March, take a few minutes if not more to do something, anything, to highlight the issue and defend the women, men and children facing threats, intimidation and execution.

It could be art, a short piece of writing, a quote, a photo, a cartoon, an act of solidarity, a song, a Tweet, signing a petition…

On the eve of this important day, here’s a favourite of mine [English lyrics below] by Shahin Najafi, one of the cases that is being highlighted on the day. It’s a little bit of blasphemy and apostasy all in one…

A severed head in between your hands
my eyes on the broken clock
And sad and rebellious poems
and the wolf, unafraid of the gun
On my doubts of the origin of existence,
on choking loneliness when drunk
And longing and inhaling you,
and the depth of the tragedy not seeing you
The artery destined to blockage,
and your crime, a scream against the wind
The end of the story is always a bitter one,
and the poet whose conviction is apostasy
The good God sleeping in my book,
the dried semen on my bed
The good God of wrath, death, and fatwa,
and my cries over Yaghma’s poetry
Let me be like a cactus
Stay with me who has read poetry,
next to you, with covenant with the desert,
that our code is to die standing up
that our code is to die standing up
Tell them, our Hadith was a Hadith of blood,
contempt, born out of insanity
Tell them, how I did not give in
Tell them, how I died standing up
The good God sleeping in my book,
the dried semen on my bed
The good God of wrath, death, and fatwa,
and my cries over Yaghma’s poetry
Let me be like a cactus
Stay with me who has read poetry,
next to you, with covenant with desert,
that our code is to die standing up
that our code is to die standing up