Writer, playwright, journalist, and theater teacher Sakineh Arabnejad is Trondheim's 7th ICORN resident
Sakineh Arabnejad is an Iranian writer, playwright, journalist, and teacher specialising in theater. In December 2024, she arrived in Norway to begin a two-year ICORN residency in Trondheim, where she continues her work.
Arabnejad holds a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Tehran and an MA in Dramatic Literature from the Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran. Her work focuses on issues related to women, children, social, and environmental concerns.
For over 20 years, Arabnejad has worked on translating plays from English to Persian, writing radio plays, scripts, writing articles for newspapers and journals, and teaching performance arts at schools and universities.
In 2014, Arabnejad founded a theatre institute ‘The School of the 1001 Nights’. She also founded and taught the theatre course at Shahid Bahonar University.
As a woman in the public sphere, Arabnejad faced censorship, bans on publishing and employment, interrogations, and persecution. She was expelled from the Shahid Bahonar University and her theatre institute was closed. Unable to continue working in Iran, she fled to Armenia in 2023.
Since the beginning of her ICORN residency, Arabnejad has taken part in several public events and has published an essay about theater and performance in Iran in the publication Scenekunst.
Trondheim ICORN City of Refuge
Trondheim has been an ICORN City of Refuge since 2004 and has, to date, hosted seven writers, artists, and journalists through the programme. These include writer Musa Mutaev from Chechnya; poet Montaser Abdelmawgoud from Egypt; poet, writer, and artist Marjan Poursharifi from Iran; journalist, writer and activist Asieh Amini from Iran; journalist Mohammad Rahbar from Iran, academic, writer, translator, and activist Ashur Etwebi from Libya, and Sakineh Arabnejad.
In 2024, Trondheim celebrated its 20th anniversary as a City of Refuge.
