Political freedom has been championed by every poet who mattered in the Arab world. In fact, it is virtually impossible for any poet to win esteem among the audience of poetry without first championing the cause of freedom and political liberty. The Arab world is full of poets and other creative writers who are refugees from their own governments because of their audacity in facing up to injustice and repression. This kind of struggle against internal coercion waged constantly by generation after generation of Arab creative writers, particularly the poets, has long been their privilege and choice, making itself felt before political thinkers begin to wage war through intellectual reasoning and didactic argument. He called for the liberation of both body and soul from the repressive injunctions imposed upon them throughout the centuries, awakening women to a new awareness of their bodies and their sexuality, wrenching them away from the taboos of society, and making them aware of its discriminatory treatment of the sexes, of its inherent cruelty.
Aroused consciousness is irreversible, except through delusion.
Fanatical counterattacks, made in the name of religion, honor, or any of the great absolutes, can warp meaning already gained and re-encode its signals, but they cannot obliterate knowledge already acquired. The Qabbani baptism is like a tattoo on the spirit. It cannot be removed. Regional, People 04 May 1998, natl. Nizar Qabbani, Sensual Arab Poet, Dies at 75.