According to Expressen, in December it was revealed that Lund municipality's writer-in-residence Bissan Edwan called for celebration after Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023. Reports indicate the political leadership of Lund's culture and leisure committee proposes that writer Bissan Edwan's writer-in-residence scholarship should be terminated prematurely. The culture committee is now proposed to make a decision to break with the writer.
There has been a heated debate about whether the municipality should terminate the cooperation or not. The specific actions or statements that led to the proposal to terminate her scholarship have not been detailed by officials. Sebastian Jaktling (S), chairman of the culture and leisure committee, says: 'I think the decision we make has nothing to do with freedom of speech.
' As a writer-in-residence in Lund, one receives housing and a scholarship from the municipality for a two-year stay. The purpose is to give a persecuted or censored artist the opportunity to work freely with their art. The project costs a total of 466,000 kronor annually for the municipality.
Bissan Edwan has so far been in Lund for about half of her two-year stay. Bissan Edwan is critical of the politicians' reasoning and the media reporting of the case. In a written statement to SVT, Bissan Edwan says: 'People may not agree with what I say, and that is their full right.
But punishing a writer for their opinions is not a way to protect democracy, but a threat to it. Societies that accept that others' freedom is restricted today may come to realize that their own freedom is conditioned tomorrow. ' It remains unclear whether the culture committee has officially voted on the proposal to break the cooperation, and if so, what the outcome was.
The legal basis or municipal policy being cited for terminating the scholarship prematurely has not been specified. The controversy centers on whether municipal funds should support an artist whose political views have drawn criticism, with Edwan arguing that such actions threaten democratic principles. The decision process continues amid ongoing discussions about the balance between artistic freedom and public accountability.